


Advent

by Laziness_Incarnate



Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-05-19 04:19:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 78,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19349368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laziness_Incarnate/pseuds/Laziness_Incarnate
Summary: It is known that throughout history, beings of god-like power regularly descended upon the world to shape it as they saw fit. The Six Gods. The Eight Greed Kings. The Evil Deities. And now, the time for a new arrival nears. Ainz Ooal Gown is likely to be one of such beings, but from the east grandiose tales are heard, indicating that he may not be the only one this time.





	1. Arc I: A City in the Sky - Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there, dear reader. It's me! the one who has plenty of stories started, and chapters for them not yet published - because I hate how they turned out - laughing at the very concept of a chapter, bringing you yet another story!
> 
> And yes, this is yet another story about an OC getting transported like our guy papa bones, but there's enough twists to it to not feel cheap, in my opinion. I'm open to suggestions and criticism, if anyone has any. Also, keep in mind that the MC is slightly a nutjob, and you may ask why. I don't know, everything below wrote itself with little interference from my conscious mind.
> 
> Enjoy.

In the year 2126, a revolution on the entertainment market was made when a game development group announced their new title "YGGDRASIL", using state-of-the-art tech such as the neural nano-interface – until the release of YGGDRASIL, no attempts of using that technology for games or anything even remotely mainstream – YGGDRASIL featured a hitherto unseen level of player freedom, customization and sheer size, the likes that had only been dreamed about for more than a century. Beyond the basic knowledge about the systems to play the game and a general idea of the genre – that were almost completely generic with the exception of specific player controls, which were entirely a new creation – the dev team was very hands off about things that could be done in the game, leaving the playerbase to experiment hit and miss in most situations.

There were many sellpoints for YGGDRASIL for many different audiences, from the novel experience of really being in the shoes of your avatar and directly controlling their every move, to the customization, the aesthetics, the seemingly infinite adventures that could potentially be experienced on the nine worlds that seemed to be larger each time one travelled them, guild creation, which also includes guild wars and base capturing, the economy, roleplaying – name it, and there is audience interested on it.

From lone wolves who just wanted to sight-see – as such a thing was impossible to do in the real world – to people who joined together to clear some dungeon, attack some kingdom, or assault other players, to people who only wanted to vent anger or frustration with the over-the top action and violence possible in the game, to nekama and other types of roleplayers, to fantasy authors who wanted to use the game to visualize parts of a novel, or a character, or wanted inspiration, to any other kind of weirdo that could be possibly thought of, and more.

YGGDRASIL alone changed the way of the market in other ways, outside of the game itself. Its reception was so great, that the company responsible for the production of the Neural Nano-interface – an until then mere curiosity – had its stock empty overnight, and continued to be empty for months afterward, with their production unable to keep up with the astronomical-level demand spike. With the widespread use of the NNI, traffic going through other, more traditional mediums was reduced dramatically, and companies had to adapt, while a good number of them saw in the NNI new ways to make profit.

But such things were completely inconsequential to the YGGDRASIL player Sera, who in actuality was one of the few fantasy writers who could claim to make profit from their works of fiction nowadays. That ID being a pseudonym, just like the other names he wrote under. Not an extreme sensation in the world from his works – in fact, if you were to ask anyone about any of his pseudonyms, for people it most likely wouldn't ring a bell. But that's fine, he didn't care about that either – actually, being a celebrity would be extremely tedious if he were to be honest – and he didn't care much about money beyond using it to sustain himself with the bare minimum.

And YGGDRASIL had come out at the perfect time for him, as he had grown rather tired of other mythological settings he had already written about – namely Japanese and similar – and the (mostly) Nordic setting was a most welcome change for a completely new world for him to build.

Before starting up with the game, he had to catch up with what's what – being mostly unfamiliar with norse mythology – and reading up about the basic starting classes on the game, with their pros and cons. After carefully thinking about the very start of the next story he wanted to write, he finally decided.

Creating his avatar after the, so to speak, "primordial being" of this new world, he decided upon a particular heteromorphic race, the Angels. While by the point he joined the game the Great Prosecution of Heteromorph players was in its all-time peak, Angels were one of the few of such races that weren't killed on sight – mostly on two factors, first that Angels didn't look monstrous, and secondly but most importantly, the existence of the Guild Seraphim more or less guaranteed the protection of most angelic players, if they didn't have any prior confrontation with said player.

Now, the name of his character wasn't as much deeply thought about as he wanted, being that all those names had been  _already_  being in use, no matter how many hundreds of them he typed – and in a moment of desperation he just cut off the 'phim' from Seraphim and he found almost unbelievably an username which wasn't used. Momentarily, he was relieved, because he for sure would not be one of those who steep so low as to use random letter and number combinations to use as a name. The name was nothing inspired and he certainly couldn't link it up with the character he had in mind, but the name of the avatar wasn't very important when the time to type the draft and final novel.

What he hadn't expected was that just a few months into playing the game, his priorities shifted from writing at the top, to play YGGDRAISL at the top. He wasn't saying that he didn't write anymore, but it was certainly less than what was before.

And so a few years passed by exploring the Nine Worlds, fighting and running from mobs and bosses, discovering a few secret locations, grinding a bit so further exploration was easier, buying some mercenary NPCs because he quickly learned that teaming up with other people was a hit and miss that regularly was a miss when it came to what he was looking for. Somewhere after four years of playing the game he started to make liberal use of the real-money in-game market, such as gacha and other premium items. He always made sure to leave enough to subsist, but any plus was going mostly towards some thing or another in the game. A few years after that, he started again writing more than playing, because he had hit a metaphorical wall – the character he had designed, Sera, was mostly as he had imagined her, and he had seen much of the Nine Worlds, enough to have a very solid base to develop upon. What had been a slight bummer was that he had reached the 'cap' of accompanying NPCs he could personally create without having a Base, which was the high number of two – given that their character creation platform had to be somewhere, and being that he didn't have a base, those platforms had to go to his inventory. And those platforms occupied way too much space with his build for having more than to two to be a viable option.

That had been an absolute nerf on the devs' part, as before he started purchasing premium items there have been lone players with a legion worth of NPCs – but it had been deemed "too unbalanced".

Fast forward a few weeks, and he found a new opportunity while exploring the more dangerous parts of Midgard.

* * *

A lone figure walked through highly decorated hallways, coat of arms and windows sporadically ornamenting walls made of carefully designed masonry while pristine wooden floors that were carpeted with an extremely high-quality royal red fabric with golden embroidery led towards a great double door made from a bronze-ish metal to the outside.

Sera was lamenting the fact that he would lose all this he worked so much for. There was still so much that there could be done, explore, discover and create – heck, he still hadn't written up every character he had made on his little space he had made for himself.

Walking at a sedate pace, the Seraphim finally passed the great double door. He sighed, both in appreciation – like many times he had done before – and sadness alike.

After discovering this place and making it his 'base', he had spent a huge deal of time and money to make it just as one of the important places for his novel, and the result was one he was most certainly pleased with.

Originally when scouting this area, he hadn't thought much about it – it was your typical floating island somewhat common in the more dangerous parts of many of the Nine Worlds, albeit on the big side. Most of the time, such islands are largely empty with the odd trinket or some rare minor item hidden, and in very counted cases they turned out to be something really valuable, like a Dragon's Nest or the like.

So using a racial trait of his avatar, the ability to fly without the use of spells, he went up in the air to take a peek if there was anything interesting.

What he had found however, was something he didn't expect. The floating mass of rock was home to a few humanoid villages of various races, and some which were visibly destroyed, along with a ruined castle in one of the hills. With a big fucking Ancient Dragon resting on top of it.

He thought he had hit the jackpot, as Ancient Dragons were practically a goldmine worth of loot, and largely dismissed the rest of the landscape as simple "flavour" from the devs' part. But when he landed on the floating island, a "quest log" appeared on his HUD – a rare occurrence given the go-blindly kind of gameplay that was the norm on YGGDRASIL. In fact, the "quest log" didn't offer much guidance beyond stating "free the land from its oppressor", so it wasn't like it was of big help anyways.

It was certainly not an event, or at least not one wildly publicized as normally such a thing is, so he thought he had found a nice little easter egg, the kind that were a few thousand of all throughout the game.

It didn't really matter to him though, as he would hunt that wyrm with or without the need of a quest – it was to that level of a profitable endeavour.

His current "party" consisted of a single player – himself – and two NPCs that were meticulously created by him.

His build was an uncommon, though certainly not unseen one, a combination of mage and ranger that specialized in offense at long ranges and in a short span of time. Like literally everything else in YGGDRASIL, having this job had its own respective perks and penalties – being a hybrid job meant that there are some abilities that were locked and couldn't be used, such as specialized spells and skills and some branches of magic, but came with being able to use a rather unknown weapon class, the spellbow. This weapon served in many ways like a staff to many mage-classes, but had the unique ability of also being able to use normal arrows if the user so desired.

Being a magic archer was essentially like being a multitasker, able to do a great deal of magic damage but also capable of dealing physical damage – with the added advantage of being able to cast most spells at least ten times faster than other magic classes when using the spellbow, with the downside of being locked off from most of the more useful area-of-effect spells available, and having a heavy penalty when trying to cast without the bow. To be concise, a magic archer wasn't good at crowd controlling in most occasions, but could be very useful against single powerful enemies or even a reduced group of enemies. This class had also a wider choice of skills to pick for close quarter combat with daggers than other magic casters, and could even use swords, although with a reduced efficiency compared to full-blown warriors.

In many ways it was one of the best "jack of all trades, master of none" builds known, but the addition of his angelic abilities fitted this job almost perfectly – being able to fly around without mana consumption and casting spells in a fraction of the time other magic casters could, one could say he had become the ultimate partisan. There is also the fact that he had found out some racial classes of the angelic race gave specific buffs to his build, or that unlocked "unique" skills and spells.

Having his build in consideration, he prepared his two NPCs to both complement each other and himself – a close quarter specialist and a specialized magic caster capable of all magics he wasn't able to cast.

The first, armed with a stubby shortspear and shield combo, wearing a set of rather heavy armour and capable of minor spells from the Paladin class was a Cherubim named Drifa whose design was originally heavily influenced by Valkyries, but quickly started to take concepts from other European mythologies – not unlike YGGDRASIL itself. As it stands, Drifa was combat wise a very good tank capable of taking a beating very well, as well as being able to heal herself and do some minor buffs when the situation required. Sera had painstakingly and meticulously chosen Drifa's attire to match her build as best as it could, granting extra damage resistance for both magic and physical attacks, as well as resistance to various ailments and outright immunity to some others that the angelic race was not – such as the typical spam of Chronomantic spells ever so common in the later stages of the game. Drifa was, more importantly, also a character and key to the "tale of creation" for his new novel and had the character description full to the brim with lore.

The second was an Elder Lich, a logical choice given the race's affinity to the arcane, and the role that was needed to fill. Daith, a completely bare bones figure covered by a black robe that was reminiscent to many depictions of the Grim Reaper – as common as it would be, as almost every single character on the Skeleton Mage tree was dressed in the same fashion. Aside from clichés, his build was effective on what's it was intended to be. Liches' natural resistance to normal Necromancy and some types of magic meant that to attack Daith effectively one had to use different attacks than the ones effective to the other two. He served mostly as a support character but had several devastating AoE attacks that were used only when the order was given. Naturally, he also was a key character to one of the myths for his novel and had also his character description full.

Both of them were very good companions at level 80-ish, the same as Sera, but naturally couldn't measure up to a player who knew what he was doing, so for PvP they were in a big disadvantage. They were good for PvE encounters, however, and particularly well prepared to fight that Ancient Dragon resting on top of that destroyed fortress.

The downside to companion/mercenary NPCs is that for many things they needed direct orders to act optimally – no matter whether voice or written orders. Voiced commands were in more widespread use among those who used the NPCs, as most people would argue that saying things out-loud is faster than taking the time to write them, even if shouting them out loud gave off exactly what the character was going to do and rendering the command pointless as the enemy (in a PvP scenario) would be prepared for it. Written messages giving orders however could be set on private so the orders would be unknown to anyone aside the player. And this is what Sera used to offset the unbalance when dealing with PKers, because after so many years of writing he could actually write faster than he could speak.

So, after making the necessary preparations so the upcoming battle with the Dragon went as smoothly as it could, the group of three went up the castle and battled it. More than half of the fight was while flying as all combatants were fly-capable, and Drifa soaked up most of the attacks while Sera blitzed its sides with fast adamantine-headed magic-infused arrows and Daith got enough time to cast his more effective high-tier spells. In typical MMORPG fashion with a powerful enemy and few combatants, it took almost an hour to defeat the beast, but when finished, all that time was worth the rewards. Ancient Dragon scales and other materials were of very high quality, used in early-endgame crafting and otherwise were worth quite a bit of coin. But as he was packing up the loot, a message popped up again on his HUD, saying  _"QUEST COMPLETE!"_  and he was about to ignore it as it didn't gave automatically the rewards from completing a dungeon, but he noticed he couldn't close the window. Now reading it, with each word his surprise grew more and more.

_"With the oppressor's vanquish, now it is possible to claim the land as your own. Do you want to take ownership of this location?"_

What. He thought that to own a Guild Base you had to be part of well, a guild –which he was not – and it had to be a  _dungeon_  to begin with, which this location was certainly not.

But not to look at the gifted horse in the mouth, he accepted with growing excitement and dread in equal amounts. If it really becomes a Guild Base for him, depending on the amount of available levels available he could be free to make some characters that he had been thinking of for the last few years, and he was anticipating such an event because visualizing the two he made in-game certainly sparked more character development than he would have thought possible before. However, if it was too good of a deal, it could become a target for other players, and he knew with absolute certainty that he couldn't hope to best an attacking Guild with only a few NPCs and automatic defences.

What happened however was neither what he hoped for nor what he feared, but something in-between.

Many of the functions known for Guild Bases were there, some were not, and more interestingly those villages in the floating island became "affiliated" with him. Opening the new Base tab, he found in the treasury a few items that were mostly trash, and there was a "daily income" which specified that it came from the surrounding settlements. He had never heard of anything of the sort, but it didn't quite as much of a shock as YGGDRASIL was known for having so many things yet to be discovered. The income by itself wasn't anything to bat an eye about, it didn't reach ten thousand per day, so about a year worth of these 'taxes' could buy a single bone of the Ancient Dragon he just slew.

Also, his new base didn't count as a Guild Base, so it couldn't be used as an objective for Guild Wars – meaning it couldn't be conquered by other players as far as he could tell. It also meant that there was no option to create a Guild Weapon, but such a thing was not all that important in comparison.

He could have joined some guild ages ago and created some of the characters he wanted, but the fact was that he knew himself enough to know that he would pester anyone in the guild he joined to let him create all NPCs and he was sure problems would erupt from that. Essentially, he wanted to create all characters and places he possibly could, and reflecting on many of the players he had interacted with in all those years, well, he couldn't see that happening.

But now all that power was on his reach, for him and him alone.

He smirked madly, although his character didn't manifest it because imposed technical limitations.

_"I'm going to have a good time"_ he thought.

And he had.

Now, in the twilight hours of YGGDRASIL, and long after finishing grinding like crazy to reach level one hundred, he leisurely wandered through his greatest creation. He counted in it all of its NPCs, all of the buildings he had placed. What once was a sad ruined excuse for a castle was practically completely re-made, adding extra towers and other minor buildings and changing its aesthetic from mildly norse to mostly gothic. He had already given up on maintaining a strictly-nordic setting, much like YGGDRASIL's devs.

The woods all around the castle were almost completely replaced with a massive sprawling city that also includes the pre-existing settlements, except for a rather sizable patch of land that was dedicated to farmland.

At the edge of the floating island, massive double walls similar in concept to the Theodosian Walls but with the same aesthetic as the castle enclosed the massive city.

There were many buildings, and many more NPCs – both POPs and manually created ones. In fact, from what information he had gathered about Guild Bases, the POPs in the floating island behaved a little differently. They increased in number weekly if there was any extra housing, and they had to be maintained with produce – which was the main reason behind the existence of the farmland in the first place. A percentage of the population automatically becomes a "guard" up to level thirty, with builds mostly random. There are three main species of POPs – human, elf and dwarf, each spawning from a different point, where before were the original villages. They weren't great by any stretch of the imagination, but at least they didn't count towards the level limit so they were essentially free cannon fodder. They also served to make the city feel lived in, which was an added bonus.

Sera had a difficult time naming it, but after a few months of building the metropolis – and not doing much of anything else really – he decided on Almha, the Celestial City and one of the most important cities on his new novel, which only had in common the name because the original Almha he had already written was a tad different – no floating island for instance.

From the entrance of Heavenscrown Castle, Sera glanced upon it all. In less than an hour, all this would be gone, forever. He couldn't say that it had been wasted time, as he had the most fun in his life creating this city, and it served very well on its purposes of being a source of almost endless inspiration – but damn if it didn't hurt.

Once more, he started to walk down the immaculate white stairs that lead to the castle from the biggest avenue in the metropolis. On the same road, south from the castle laid the Grand Cathedral, and according to his written lore, a place where the populace pray to the Goddess of Creation – in other words, Sera's own avatar. He even made a sculpture-like golem in the same image as his avatar – albeit considerably larger – stand guard in front of the cathedral's doors. Obviously, no NPC did pray at all, as such behaviour wasn't available. However that didn't mean that he couldn't make the religion's heads anyways. They weren't anything imposing – they were the High Priest, the Inquisitor and the Holy Maiden, of which none surpassed level fifty. Nonetheless, the High Priest was a job-wise high-level divine magic caster and thanks to special items able to summon 'holy creatures' up to tier eight; the Inquisitor was alike job-wise rather high level in the paladin branch, and the Holy Maiden had a build similar to Sera's own, and in fact was equipped a spellbow he had used previously. All of them, obviously, had their description tab full with lore about themselves and their relationship with other NPCs.

East down the avenue was where the Arcane University and the Great Library were located – the University had a few NPCs inspired by various wizards from different myths and pop culture, and the Library was full of books he had either bought, found or written himself. Needless to say, the great majority was written by him – as he could finish several of these 'books' in a week without even trying – and the ones that were not written by him were mostly related to magic spells. Honouring his perceived sacredness of the place, the Head Librarian was a level one hundred NPC that could take a beating and more importantly, give one. Sera has the personal opinion that more than enough libraries had been burnt down all throughout human history, and even if this one couldn't even really burn, it was the sentiment which mattered.

West down the road laid the Barracks of the Paladin's Order and the Griffin's nest. This is the first place any outsider would find themselves in if they weren't capable of flying, so it had accordingly an un-proportional amount of high level NPCs – and NPCs in general, not counting POPs. The Paladin's Order was full of, well, paladins – most built to be extremely durable tanks with a few in between who were actually DPS and other few who were more proficient with magic. There were five other knights present on this area also had the beast-tamer job and used Griffins from the nearby nest as mounts, leaving a pair of two level one hundred Elder Griffins in the nest without a rider.

As is tradition, every single character, including the five griffins and the two elder ones, had an extensively defined character description.

Looking at the time, Sera realized that there was less than ten minutes left until the shutdown. Using the common angelic trait to fly, he made way back towards Heavenscrown Castle. He had little time to sightsee anymore, no matter how captivating any and all visages he created turned out. Landing just in front of the fortress' great double doors, Sera walked at a quicker pace through the exquisitely decorated hallways until reaching the Throne Room, where five figures were standing and another one sat on the majestic golden throne at the end of the room.

The floor was decorated with an even higher quality carpet and more intricate embroidery than the one leading to this room. Rows of columns supporting gothic arches divided the room in three parts, being the centre the most important as it is where the throne was placed, and the two sides which were designed for the use of servants to do their duties without interfering any important business – not that it mattered in-game because no such thing happened . From the high vaulted ceiling a row of chandeliers hang, all of them of an extremely elegant design, and in the wall just behind the throne was what looked like a great window, though no light from outside passed through.

The five standing figures were the Five Generals, all level eighty, and the figure in the throne was the Hero-king Kainen, who was the NPC he had thought of the most, since Kainen was one of the main characters for at least a few important arcs. He was dressed on a set of heavy armour consisting of a decorated plated coat and covered by a highly decorated purple and golden surcoat, dark plated gauntlets and pauldrons, similar looking plated leg armour and sabatons, a great dark brown cape with a white fluffy-looking fur that rested on his shoulders, and a golden circlet-styled crown that decorated his forehead while apparently keeping his long scarlet hair out of his face. Each and every single item he wore was of divine class, his jewellery had enchantments that complimented his build perfectly, and on his hip rested a sheathed golden sword.

Although this Hero-king and the one he had written about in his drafts differed a little in context – this one, to explain why they are on a floating island, had 'lead his people under the guidance of the Goddess to a land that would be protected while the rest of the world was destroyed' basically. It was slightly ironic now, like he had written something foreboding of the future – the world going to end and now YGGDRASIL was shutting down.

Sera extended his arm towards the Hero-king at the same time sending the NPC an order to follow, then gave the Five Generals the order to kneel. Without looking back, he extended his angelic wings and flew towards the portal that was on the window, and he knew Kainen was right behind using the amulet that granted [Fly].

What awaited them beyond the portal was the only part of this place that would let it classify as a 'dungeon', and it wasn't because it was originally there, but because it functioned exactly the same as most dungeons in having floors that were different dimensions. It had been a gift from the devs' part for using so much money for cash items one particular month.

The room one is transported by going through the portal is a great hall with tables full of food and drink, very similar to Valhalla, in fact. But its inhabitants aren't exactly the souls of those fallen in battle – because that would need more levels than the level cap permits, and having a bunch of level one 'legendary heroes' would be anticlimactic and lame.

In contrast, to circumvent this problem, Sera created the "Five Hero Spirits" which were in actuality phantasms, the top tier of the ghost tree.

The ghost tree was treated by most players as a joke, as it is completely immune to physical damage but takes double damage from magic from the divine type, as well as being unable to deal physical damage. What many didn't know was the fact that from Spectre and onwards, they had the ability to not only possess enemies and deal direct damage disregarding resistances completely, but also the ability to possess allies, which added up half the phantasm's levels to the target for as long as the possession was active.

So, in a way, players using the ghost-branch were the ultimate support player. Not a thing many people liked, it seemed, because there hasn't been much information on the net about these classes.

What even less people seemed to know is that there is no limit of how many phantasms can possess a single allied character, meaning one could stack two level one hundred phantasm players on another level one hundred player and their combined might would equal to a level two hundred player, something that is an impossibility in-game.

Sera had discovered this accidentally, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't abuse it. Sadly, base-created NPCs couldn't leave the boundaries of the base. Sure, he could go and buy premium platforms to create a few NPC companions of this style, but he couldn't think of a reason for another, different character to be a phantasm. He valued his own worldbuilding too highly to create a character without good reason.

As it is, the Five Hero Spirits are what one could expect, they are the amalgamation of the souls of the fallen in battle that fill certain categories – all lore-wise only, obviously. There's the Priest, the Mage, the Ranger, the Paladin and the Strategist– although the list feels a little lacking compared to the many other roles available in-game, they make sense lore-wise.

In the hypothetical case of an enemy raid reaching the Throne Room and defeating the Five Generals, Sera had typed in a command for the five Spirits to pass through the portal and immediately possess Kainen to give him a ludicrously powerful power-up of plus two hundred and fifty levels, making the Hero-king one of the most powerful entities of the game, bar some Gods, some Dragons and the World-Eater itself.

Having this and only this purpose in mind, each phantasm had job classes that were repeated the least possible.

For example, the Priest not only was for Divine magic, but also for a myriad of other support spells and classes such as seer and anti-scrying while the Mage specialized mostly on other types of offensive magic.

The result was, however good on paper, never tested as there hadn't been many attempts to sack his sanctuary and all of those were stopped right on the entrance, so there hadn't been anyone to reach the Throne Room.

The spirits were standing on guard right at the sides of the portal, with the exception of the Strategist who was in front of it.

Sera bypassed them completely, and continued walking towards the far end of the hall, where another set of double doors were.

This time, instead of golden metal or metal in general, the doors were made of a rare type of wood that was, allegedly, resistant to magic and more durable than normal metals while still being lighter. This was also the most decorated set of doors he made, and with good reason – what lied beyond was 'the seat of the Goddess' after all, it  _needed_  to be on another level to anything else.

In the dark wood was ornamented with a bas-relief depicting a skeleton on the outer left side of the doors and an angel on the outer right of the doors, both reaching inwards towards a feminine figure which was perfectly cut in half when the doors opened. Said figures are no other than Daith, Drifa, and his own avatar, Sera. He was very proud of the artwork, he spent a good part of a month with this final design, and who knows how much time with all the failed attempts. The work was delicate, elegant yet not overcharged, and gave off the impression of the figures being real. Truly, a masterpiece.

Beyond these doors laid a rather small room with stepped floor, getting higher the further one went. The room itself was similarly decorated as the doors that led to it quality-wise, a pristine white carpeting decorating the floor while even higher-quality fabrics hanged from the sealing in inverted arches of cloth, the walls were also of pure colour with embellishments of gold, silver and gems, and in the zenith of the steps, a similarly white diwan with delicate and intricate golden decorations. From the high windows on the walls, light dimly entered the room from the great white void that lay beyond.

Two figures were kneeling one on each side of the sofa, on the left was Daith, now an Overlord Wiseman, and on the right was Drifa, now a Seraphim. Both were garbed on appropriate divine-class gear and, in Drifa's case, also sported a divine-class weapon and shield.

Daith, however good quality of equipment he had, always ended up resembling the grim reaper due to his race, but that was acceptable since he was supposed to be an analogue. Dressed on a fine black robe with embroidery of silver, a rather oversized hood covered his head and left his face on the dark. A total of six rings adorned his hands, each having an enchantment that either compensated for his racial weaknesses or granted a buff to a spell, beyond the obligatory anti-chronomancy ring.

Drifa, on the other hand, had changed her wardrobe quite noticeably. She sported now a set of silvery heavy plate with a white tabard on top, with her helmet unequipped right now, leaving her silver hair and eyes and carefully sculpted face in plain view. There wasn't much work to do with Daith appearance-wise, so the time to visually modify him went to Drifa instead.

Just like Kainan looked like a rather handsome young man with long scarlet hair and golden eyes, Drifa looked downright gorgeous, like a paradigm of beauty.

Sera continued walking towards the diwan, but just before he reached it he turned around and ordered the Hero-king to bend on a knee in front of the sofa, and then Sera reposed on said furniture.

His eyes barely left the corner of his HUD where the countdown was present, as if it was making fun of him and everything he built in all those years. He couldn't fault the developers though, no matter how much it stung.

His final moments on YGGDRASIL were plagued with recurrent thoughts and sadness. He  _really_  didn't want to see anything he made go just like that, but accepted the fact that there is nothing he could possibly do about it directly.

23:58:50

_"Hmm… I guess it's time to go back to nonstop writing again. Maybe I will find something similar to YGGDRASIL out there, but I need to cement everything I created here on a story. Or several, however many it takes."_

23:59:35

Sera closed his eyes.  _"Goodbye, my children"_  because that's what he felt about not only every single character he created, but also every single structure, every detail. It truly felt like his own magnum opus, one that only he had ever seen, and no one else could ever possibly fully envision.

23:59:58

23:59:59

00:00:00

…

00:00:01

…

Many things overloaded Sera's senses at the same time. The softness of the fabrics he was wearing and the diwan he was resting on, the pure air he breathed, unfamiliar weights both on his scalp and chest, and more importantly – when he opened his eyes again, expecting to see the boring dull grey paint of his apartment's ceiling, he saw instead the same he saw before closing his eyes, the Goddess' room.

Several conflicting thoughts assaulted his mind,  _"Am I still logged in on YGGDRASIL? Was the shutdown a prank? Had they prolonged the game? Why does my HUD not show up? Why can smell things and feel the world this well? I can't access the menus. I can't logoff. Emergency logoff doesn't work. GM? Doesn't work. Message? But message who? I don't know anyone that well."_ He reached for his face with his right hand, and was surprised to discover that his avatar was showing an emotion, like if he were his avatar.

"My Lady? Is something the matter?" A soft, melodic voice was carried through the room. Sera turned his head towards the source, and his surprise grew as he concluded that indeed, Drifa had asked that question, as she was looking at him with an expression of genuine concern, both that  _should_  be impossible for an NPC – heck, showing emotions should also be impossible for  _players_  like himself.

A pit at the bottom of his stomach started to grow.  _"It couldn't be that…"_

The both of them maintained eye contact for a few moments, before Drifa hurriedly looked back down. "I'm sorry, Lady Sera, but I noticed your distress and wanted to be of use, please understand…"

Sera saw fit to calm her down, as Drifa didn't do anything serious, so he lifted an arm and said "Don't worry, Drifa. I was pondering…" his own voice sounded so strange, that he had to pause because he couldn't believe it was really his voice. Soft, almost velvety but also slightly commanding and demanding respect – what you would expect from a powerful Seraphim to have, like his avatar… his avatar? Himself? Or herself?

Dread continued to pool on his stomach.

"What is, then, the subject that brought you so much distress, my Lady?" Now it was Kainen who spoke up, his golden eyes seemed to glow brightly.

Sera took a moment to organize his, erm, her thoughts to form a believable reason – he-she doubted the NPCs would know about what she was stressing about.

It was also strange the fact that they could sense her distress even though she had barely done anything to demonstrate – which was also strange, her reaction didn't match with what she would expect herself to do in such a scenario – her distress, which amounted to slightly frown and touching his… her own face.  _"Damn this is going to be difficult."_

"… I don't think we are on Midgard anymore. I thought the Ragnarok would end all of you." Both true, if you replace 'Ragnarok' with 'YGGDRASIL shutting its servers down'. It is true, after all, that the best lies are the ones who have a sprinkling of truth in them.

The other three occupants of the room visibly tensed to that statement, to which she continued.

"… Mighty Hero, it would be best if you went back. Your Kingdom surely is in the need of their King given these uncertain events."

The redhead complied with reverence, and swiftly left the room. At least, by being the one who wrote all of them, Sera exactly how should she act to stay in character – because if one thing was certain was the uncertainty of the situation. Sera created all of them to venerate *herself* as a goddess, but if they became real like they seemed, how they acted became unpredictable.

The 'goddess' turned her head to address the other two that had stayed in the room.  
"Rise – Daith, Drifa. I would have to ask of you to leave me to my thoughts for a while." Sera said trying her best to speak in such a way that didn't break character – just to be on the safe side.

Both got to their feet, but hesitated to follow the rest of the order.

Drifa in particular sported a visible expression of uncertainty – although the Overlord may also be having similar thoughts as her, but given the racial trait of having a clean skull, it was difficult to deduct. Sera addressed the other seraphim "Do you have a question for me, Drifa?" to which the Valkyrie tensed slightly, but answered with little more inquiry.

"No… I mean, yes, my Lady. It's just… I thought…" she trailed off, trying not to make any visual contact.

"Yes?"

"Is this like with the Old Kingdom again?" the silver-headed woman asked. She was referencing a specific piece of lore that was part only of the in-game world, which explained why the Almha was a massive metropolis in the sky. According to what was written, the Celestial City had not been part of Midgard in its origin, but was transported there after the world it was native to ended. In-game none of it was true, as Sera could testify because it had been himself – as the author and player – who found the island in Midgard and then added all other NPCs and buildings.

Sera blinked, not expecting the NPC to ask her something based off the lore she wrote as if it was truth. Going by the tone Drifa asked the question, could it be that the descriptions the player wrote were translated as fabricated memories? If so, had every NPC experienced the same as Drifa, then?

Sera briefly looked towards the Overlord at her right, as her thoughts ran wildly. "Perhaps… it is a similar occurrence… indeed." Sera moved her eyes again to meet the Valkyrie's, and noted that Drifa still had a thought visibly bothering her, if her expression was anything to go by.

"You have another question." This time, Sera didn't ask in as much as plainly stated.

The seraphim gulped, taking a moment to strengthen her resolve to say whatever was pestering her mind.

"No, it's… it's only that it's the first time I've ever heard your voice, my Lady." She said while her expression morphed to unrestrained awe. "I was simply mesmerized by it."

Now it was time for the magic archer to take a moment to process what the other seraphim said – while trying to find in her memories where in the lore it was said that Sera, as the character, hadn't ever muttered a word. A few seconds passed until she realized that the Valkyrie was not referencing lore from her character summary, but how Sera hadn't ever spoken during the game because writing was that much faster.

So the NPC not only had fabricated memories, but also  _really_ remembered at least parts of the times they went on journeys on YGGDRASIL.

"Hmm… I saw it fitting for a… new era." Sera had trouble trying to find words to express what was in her mind in such a way to still appear as the magnanimous Goddess her character was supposed to be – because she was playing with way too many uncertain factors, and she didn't think she would survive if the NPCs turned on her.

This whole development, the more she thought about it, reeked of isekai more and more.

Sera, as the author, hated the genre in general because of stories belonging to it were, generally speaking, lazily written, planned, and thought of; plagued with a myriad of horrendous clichés and recurrent plot holes, and the only reason behind their popularity is because the main character generally is a 'normal person' that abuses one or another mechanic on the world they find themselves to become overpowered and get all the bishoujos, or bishonen. Or both. In essence, a mindless wish-fulfilment for the masses.

And now, occupying the avatar he had lovingly created throughout several years, alongside the rest of his creations, he finds himself in an eerily similar development as those novels he bashed so much.

Was this a punishment, or a reward? Sera couldn't decide.

"Does that mean…?" Daith's voice, an imposing smooth tenor, snapped Sera from his-her thoughts. "that we are yet in another world? Which is it, my Lady? Is it Helheim? Vanaheim? Alfheim?"

"I know for fact that Midgard alongside the other Eight Worlds have fallen to the Ragnarok. I doubt we are on any world we have knowledge of." Which was another way to say, a DMMO-RPG shut down its servers so it's unlikely that they'll find themselves in any of the worlds found therein.

This seemed to answer the Overlord's question, as he merely nodded and made to excuse himself from the room. After a moment, Drifa followed after him, leaving Sera alone in the room.

There was a very simple reason why the Seraphim wanted to have privacy, and that was to try to understand what was going on by freaking out as much as possible. Which was, again, less than what she had expected. She felt an inexplicable calmness blanketing over her every thought, making it easier to think, at least.

First thing she tried was to summon her HUD again, not discarding the possibility of a tech failure of some kind completely. Then the forced logout system. Then the GM system. Heck, she even tried to reach players she interacted once with [Message], but there was nothing. She then tried to bring up the Base's management tab, and for her relief, it did show up – with slight changes, but it was there nonetheless. But the moment she left the diwan she was resting on, it disappeared without her dismissing it, and she tried desperately to bring it up, but nothing she did helped, until she sat on the decorated sofa again. It seemed that its function was restricted to use only when in contact to the diwan, for some bizarre reason.

Next thing she tried was to equip her spellbow, which was stored on her inventory. She didn't know how could she possibly access her inventory without the interface, but was surprised when the gesture came naturally to her, as a small black portal opened just centimetres in front of her fingers, and she thrust her hand into it with no hint of hesitation.

From within she took her weapon, [Herald's Reverence], a divine-class magic bow made from Star Silver with magic channelers made from a special golden alchemic alloy snaking around the main body of prismatic ore. When she held the handle, it glowed a dim white light, giving the impression of the classic 'holiness' common in holy weapons in games.

A small gasp escaped her lips at the touch of the spellbow, the handle being softer than anything Sera has ever held, and it was way lighter than what it looked.

Sera had carefully designed it to compliment the avatar's outfit, which was admittedly more inclined to aesthetic than usefulness, at least appearance-wise – because in true MMO fashion, there was equipment in YGGDRASIL such as normal clothes that could be better at protecting than a full suit of plate armour, for absolutely no reason.

In that sense, Sera's outfit that consisted on a camisole of white fabric with a golden trim just below her chest that exposed her midsection, accompanied with a rather short skirt of similar appearance – the golden trim in this case being in the upper part of the garment – an overly decorated with golden embroidery white cloak that reached past her knees, and a myriad of golden bracelets, anklets, rings and a tiara – although looking like it wouldn't protect her even from a paper cut, was actually one of the best armours in the entire Celestial City behind Drifa's and Kainen's. It was not, however, a very efficient PvP outfit – but as was stated before, it was chosen mostly out of looks than anything else.

Each piece of equipment was of divine-class and enchanted with different effects, heightening resistances to many common ailments, granting a boost of stats, granting her the ability to cast certain spells with the spellbow, or giving her access to a closed-off part of the realm.

To define Sera's look concisely, one could simply say "white and gold" and be mostly correct. Her skin was pale but not unhealthily so, and to compliment her outfit her hair was a cascade of gold that reached her shoulders. The only thing that didn't enter the category of either colour was her eyes, which were of a crystalline blue shade. The look one would automatically associate with a divine existence, maybe a little too much cliché.

Next thing she looked for in her inventory were potions. Then her daggers. And so on and so forth, scrutinizing her inventory in its entirety, looking for an irregularity – maybe a devs' message or something like that, but she found nothing out of the norm.

There was nothing that indicated a bug on YGGDRASIL's side, nothing pointing at maybe a tech upgrade or even a potential beta test of a sequel – everything even felt real, which should have been an impossibility given the laws regulating virtual reality.

As any other option was discarded, Sera prepared for a final, desperate way to log out and prove that this was still a game. It didn't really matter if his account was temporarily banned from indecency, as the game should have ended anyway.

Sera raised her arms and looked at them for a moment, before moving her head to the side as her hands groped her breasts. With this, the devs should get a warning of that improper action and be forcefully disconnected.

But after seconds of molesting herself, nothing happened. A small moan escaped her lips when she stopped self-groping – goddamn the things were sensitive. But there were more important things to think about in that moment.

Just as she was trying to figure out her next move, her thoughts were interrupted by a [Message].

"…"

["My Lady, our sentinels on the walls confirm that we are indeed in a completely different environment than back on Midgard, the terrain is utterly foreign from what they reported, I have..."] the Hero-king's voice, she recognized for the small exchange they had a moment ago, resonated in her mind.

* * *

Scene change: a few moments before.

The Five Generals stood on reverence as their King returned from the Hall of Heroes – a feat normally found on fairytales, but the Hero was not a normal human being. Guided since childhood by the Goddess to lead their people so they survived the end of the world, he had long since transcended humanity and gained resistance to the passage of time.

The imposing figure of the King slowly descended from the gates to the Beyond, and then calmly walked towards his throne.

"Rise, my friends. We have many things to discuss." Kainen said as he sat on the ornamented seat.

The Generals did as told, standing formally as characters of their position typically do. One of them, Phyra the Crimson General, couldn't resist to inquiry on their King's visit to the Goddess' Realm. "Your Majesty, if I may, what was the reason our Lady invited you to her domain?" Her voice was tinted with an obvious tone of jealously underneath, but for different reasons one would imagine.

Phyra was a young woman with very similar features as the King, from the red hair, skin colour, facial structure, and even skills – the things that differenced one from another were their different genders and the fact that Phyra had burning scarlet-coloured eyes. She was, in fact, Kainen's sister – who also had an adoration which went well beyond pious worship for their Goddess.

The King chuckled at his sister's antics, but chose to graciously answer despite the graceless way she worded her question and speaking out of turn, but there was not much which could be done, as she could not act proper in a meeting even if her life depended on it.

"I am not completely sure why my presence was required, as I did not do much on the other side. But what appears to have happened, the world we were in suffered the same fate as the world of the Old Kingdom, so we must have been transported to yet another world." The Generals widened their eyes; they hadn't felt anything different about their surroundings to suggest something in the likes of  _the end of the world._  But surely, their kind Goddess had saved them yet again from certain doom, and sent them to a New World. "Our Lady did not tell me the nature of this world; she simply informed me of what happened and suggested me to go back to my people." The King looked pointedly at the Azure General, the responsible for the Griffin corps "Lyn, order a wing to scout around the city. Tell them to not engage hostiles, only to be on the lookout. If they meet heavy resistance, they are to retreat – we need to know what we are dealing with, if anything at all. Look for any sign of civilization, but don't enter contact yet." The Azure nodded in acceptance of the orders and excused himself.

Not long after he left, a courier entered the hall and kneeled before stating his business.

"My King, I was chosen by the Guard to tell… ehmm…" The poor man was out of breath and visibly agitated, like he ran all the way here form the Walls to the Castle at max speed without pause.

Kainen raised his right hand to appease the messenger. "Calm down, soldier. Tell me, is something the matter?" The king had an inkling on the reason behind the man's agitation, but wanted to be certain.

"I-It's the landscape, my King. B-beyond the walls… it's completely different! There are no more steep mountains around the city; the only elevations are small hills that don't even reach the bottom of the island. And there's a thick cover of vegetation, mostly trees, as far as the eye can see. We can't make head or tails of our situation; it seems that we've been transported to somewhere else!"

The Hero-king made a movement to appease the soldier again "We are aware of recent events. Rest assured we are trying to bring normalcy to the lives of the people – in fact, there will be an official announcement addressing current circumstances shortly. However, I need you to go back to the Walls and alert your commander to tighten the level of security for the time being. Now go, but please, don't overexert yourself." He dismissed the courier, whom excused himself and left the room.

The rest of the Generals turned again towards their King, to which he raised a brow and stated simply, "Well? Are you waiting for a direct order? We need to be prepared in case something pounces on us, you are dismissed. Go back to your troops and prepare them for action. Now, move." The Generals saluted and got to their assignments.

Kainen exhaled, various scenarios running through his mind. Hopefully they are either in presence of non-hostiles, or even alone, in the best cases. He breathed in again before resting the fingers of his left hand on his temple to communicate with the Goddess via [Message].

["… and it would be appropriate to let the people know of this, lest unrest brews over uncertainty, my Lady. It would be best if they hear it from you. That way, most of their worries would vanish. I know I'm being unreasonable, but please at least consider it."]

["Thank you for your report, Hero. I will consider your proposition. Please, keep me updated on your findings; I wouldn't want disgrace to befell any of you – you all my children, after all.]

Kainen was deeply moved by his Lady's caring words, and promised to do as she said.

Now, he had other people to address in a meeting, the heads of the Noble Houses were here practically demanding to see him seeking answers.

He loved his Lady deeply, like all devotees, but he seriously wondered the reason behind the need of the nobles, those ginormous headaches that constantly pestered him like if they were designed to make him suffer. But surely, that wasn't the case. No, it couldn't possibly be.

* * *

Scene change : The Grand Cathedral

The one and only house of worship in the entire metropolis of Almha was an impressive and colossal structure made of stones too big for any normal mortal to move around, let alone use to build – which denotes the divine nature behind its construction.

High reaching vaulted ceilings adorned with the tale of Creation and the Departure, alongside the foretelling of the tale of the Voidance, were sustained by similarly decorated pillars and walls, the latter also bearing several enormous windows of coloured glass, lighting the extremely spacious interior perfectly without any kind of penumbra setting inside.

Several depictions of Griffins were scattered all throughout of the building, from paints and bas-reliefs resting at the top of columns to the sculpture of giant griffin wings at the far side of the chamber, in the altar where the people of the faith stood.

High Priest Clement Verstand was concerned. Many people had come to him or his colleagues in the past few moments, many of them visibly distraught. It appears that the Scutum Range that surrounded the city disappeared without anyone noticing, and some had noted that the air had changed somewhat – those were mostly from the elven population. He had honestly not known what to think, some have asked if the armageddon was nigh, to which he had no concrete answer.

But then a divine connection had reached him – the Goddess herself had spoken to him! She had requested he did everything he could so the most people possible entered the sacred hall to hear an announcement.

There had been no records of anything similar ever happening, no-one else had ever heard the voice of the Goddess and he was the first mortal to ever do! He was so happy he could die peacefully in that very moment! But the Lady had make request to him, and he would be damned if he failed. Instantly, he told his colleagues to pass on the news to pedestrians passing in front of the Cathedral, and ordered for the Silver Bells to be rung thrice.

In the span of less than half an hour the hall was bursting with people, very few souls hadn't come – mostly the ones who had the job to protect them, Guards, Knights, Paladins and the like.

Everyone looked at least slightly troubled, no doubt the news had reached most if not all of them, but everyone was respectful of the place so no one muttered a word.

The next second, a blinding light appeared in the ceiling, to which everyone lifted their heads to look at the new occurrence until they realized what, or more accurately, who they were looking at. Like a human wave, everyone – from the most important noble to the most humble plebeian – adopted a praying position, their faces facing the floor.

Sera knew that she herself had designed everything in here, down to how the NPCs would act in the presence of 'the Goddess', but it still felt strange how everyone acted towards her. It sounded stupid as all hell, but it really felt uncomfortable, even if her interactions with other NPCs that had gained sentience amounted to a grand total of four.

The Seraphim looked at the crowd and sighed, a part of her mind wondered why she wasn't feeling as nervous as she thought she should be – her audience was practically the whole population of Almha cramped on a hall, with barely any more space to fit one more soul.

She was surprised to see that even the POPs had gained sentience, alongside with names and families, like if they always had been real people. She had certainly not created any of them, so it was in question why they worshipped her at all.

This was a risky move – if the NPCs really turned against her, now would be a good time to attack her. To prepare for such, she had continued holding her [Herald's Reverence] , activated many racial skills, and was prepared to teleport with the only ring that let anyone using it to move to predetermined parts of the island in an instant.

But seeing as no one in the multitude made a move indicating aggression, she continued to her secondary objective, to calm the populace. It was still strange to refer to them as living, breathing people, as less than an hour before they hadn't been anything more than just a piece of code.

She saw in there people so varied, she wasn't sure they were there as POPs back on YGGDRASIL, or at least, not like that. Elderly, youngsters, adults, children, the sick, the healthy, pregnant women, and so many much more. Elves and humans and dwarves, all praying to who an hour before was a rather mediocre author and a massive geek.

"Rise your heads, children." As one, everyone whipped their heads up so fast that they might as well have broken the sound barrier. All of them had an expression of open adoration and many were visibly crying tears of joy, to which Sera sweatdropped but no one else saw that because the bright glowing she had on her skin impeded them. "I have heard of your worries, and I am here to assure you that the world isn't going to end." At that many of the public sighed on relief. "Because it already ended." And now everyone got tense again. "Midgard, the world we were previously, had met its end. But fret not, for we are not on Midgard anymore, this is a brand New World, and its end is unlikely to be anytime soon." And now everyone relaxed again.

"So worry not, my children, and continue your lives as you have done before." The Seraphim concluded before vanishing again, teleporting to the Goddess' chambers.

People walked out of the Cathedral with an excited murmur, and the worry that had been visible on them evaporated as if it had not been in the first place.

Verstand could understand their relief, so he chose not to chastise them on the rules of the faith. Not too much, at least.

* * *

Scene change: the Barracks.

In the westernmost part of the Celestial City, just a scant few metres away from the main entrance to the metropolis, stood a fortress complex that consisted of two main buildings and several minor ones, which overall defensive capabilities were only overshadowed by the Royal Castle itself.

Consisting of the Headquarters of the Paladin's Order and the Griffin Knight's Quarters – both of them different entities nominally, but in reality it was difficult to discern one from the other most of the time –, together with a small building dedicated to the normal Garrison, plus the Armoury, the respective Treasuries, a hospital, a dining hall, latrines, storage rooms and such, all of them imposing buildings made from fine stonework where one could not fit even the thinnest blade between the stones, and all of them an easily defensible building by themselves, but in conjunction it was nothing short of undefeatable by normal methods. Dragons and other flying creatures would have a much easier time, if they could surpass their own air defence consisting of five Griffins – normally each accompanied by their respective Knight –  _and_  the two Elder Griffins, but still it wouldn't be easy as the top of the towers of each Headquarters held ballistae capable of firing bolts that could cut through most Dragons' scales like butter, at a speed that was faster than most flying creatures could fly.

In the atrium leading towards the Griffin Knights' Headquarters, the Azure General was finishing giving the wing their assignment.

"… and remember, Captain. First sign of things going sour, you are to retreat and report on the enemies' composition." Lyn said sternly, not leaving room for disagreement. "No heroics, we don't need you to be buried before we know what we are dealing with."

He was slightly regretting recommending the boy to the position – yes, the Captain was an exceedingly good fighter and field officer, and got along nicely with his partner, but the younger man was rash in the least opportune moments and with a penchant for stupid stunts he called 'heroical'. The General blamed the Captain's upbringing on a noble family with almost no martial records on the Captain's… misguided views on warfare.

But helpfully the younger man sensed his attitude and acted accordingly.

"Yes, sir!" Captain Aelfgar saluted, face serious and posture firm. He made a silent order for his two escorts to prepare for the mission with haste, and left the room to find his partner.

Aelfgar was part of an elven Noble House, usually dedicated to commerce rather than war, but ever since little he wanted to be part of the elite units of the metropolis. Discovering a latent talent for combat and strategy, he quickly went up the ranks until he was the right hand man of Lyn the Azure himself – being in such a position younger than what was considered normal not only by elven but even by human standards.

Now, his time to shine has come, and he had to actively restrain himself from acting all giddy and overall unbecoming of his position.

His wing this time consisted of another elf, a good friend of his from childhood and a superb shot with a bow, and a human who was originally part of the Paladin's Order but had a good affinity with one of the Griffins, and also was well versed with divine magic, able to tend to wounds on the field. The composition was sound in case of heavy resistance, having a long range fighter, a healer and a dedicated short range fighter, while the other two were also capable of holding their own. All in all, he felt a little confident that their mission would be completed with no problems; the only thing that could possibly give them trouble is to tango with an Elder Dragon or something stronger, which isn't particularly common. That or an army of Liches, but that was as unlikely.

Putting on his helmet, he saddled on his partner, a majestic male Griffin who had the largest wingspan among all his peers, only dwarfed by the Elder Griffins. He was a calm soul, but could be ruthless when the circumstances demanded. He could also outmanoeuvre most Dragons with ease, and although not being as resistant as one, he could take plenty of damage and still be able to land with minimum problems.

His two squadmates did the same and in short order they were searing through the sky. He always felt a sense of liberation when up in the air, he felt as he could take on the whole world. It helped that his ride could shoot rather high-tier lightning spells like a child could throw pebbles.

As ordered, the three of them circled around the city to inspect the surroundings, but besides being obviously on another placement, there was nothing strange about the landscape. He didn't see nor feel any enemy closing in, the sky did not turn dark when getting away from the city, there was nothing.

The surroundings had a few hills here and there covered with a rather thick forest, that presumably was home to a varied population of wildlife, but other than that there wasn't any sign of civilization of any kind in the area of immediate proximity.

They slowed down their flight so he could more easily cast the [Message] spell to communicate with the General.

[Proceed as ordered, circle around the city until you can't see it anymore and if you don't see anything go back.] The Azure said, cutting off the communication.

The following hours passed with them doing just that – and falling slightly into boredom after the first hour passed.

As he was about to issue the order to go back, as Almha was but a tiny speck on the horizon, Aelfgar saw in not that far a distance a thin column of smoke, not unlike one would see from a small settlement. Smiling, he turned to his teammates, "Is any of you fluent on other languages besides the kyrsian? I myself know elven and a bit of midgardian. Just in case."

"Hmm, I don't know about being fluent, but I know a bit of asgardian and vanir." One of them said while the other shook his head on the negative.

Before he did anything else, he informed his superior about this new finding, and asked for further orders.

[Scout the place and take note of its inhabitants. If they are proven to be non-hostile, you may make contact – see if you can understand them, and if so, ask about further civilization, if any.]

The mental connection was cut again, and he followed his orders.

The settlement was not that far away, and at first pass it was clear it was a simple village at the edge of the great forest he had been flying over of. Even without Elwyn's prodigious sight he could see that the villagers were humanoid in form – although size was subject to discussion, at least at that distance, the inhabitants couldn't be much bigger than a human or an elf.

Deciding it was worth a shot, he ordered the other two to come with him and land at the outskirts of the settlement, to indicate their peaceful intentions.

The majestic Griffins made touch down gracefully, and he and the other two dismounted in short order.

An elderly man accompanied by a small group of men armed with pitchforks and other such tools made their way towards them – clearly eyeing the three Knights, and more importantly, their rides, with open suspicion.

To appease them a little, Aelfgar took off his helmet so they could see his face, to which the majority of them relaxed moderately.

All of them were human, a bit shorter than Aelfgar himself, but with stout build clearly developed from working the fields. They still looked at the Griffins with suspicion, to which the beasts appeared to take offense as they turned their heads to the side, deciding to ignore the villagers.

"Greetings, strangers." The old man started, thankfully in kyrsian, which would make the exchange that much easier. "I am the elder of this village. I don't think I've ever seen that coat of arms or the winged creatures you've just dismounted, and judging by your actions, you are not here to pillage. Tell me then; what could knights such as yourselves want from this humble village?"

"Good day to you, elder. To be honest, we are from a nation to the west of here, somewhere in the heart of the forest your village is in the border of. We are here because this village is the first settlement we found – it's the first time we've made contact with anyone outside" Aelfgar said, stating their business. For some reason, this made the men look at them with suspicion again – the Captain couldn't discern behind the reason. The old man inspected his face with more scrutiny, the elder's expression morphing to a frown.

"Nonsense, the only ones alive in the heart of that forest are the beastmen from their barbaric kingdom. And seeing that the three of you are human, those beasts would have feasted with your flesh long ago if you really came from there– do you take me for a fool?" every farmer present tensed at the mention of the so-called beastmen, as if the mere mention of the word would make them appear. "Except, of course, if you are working with  _them_  – as unlikely that proposition would be." The old man finished.

Aelfgar frowned slightly, rotating his head to the side. He hadn't seen anything even remotely similar to a nation of ravenous man-eating beasts during his flight – granted, they could have been hiding under the leaves of the trees, but he didn't feel any hostile aura all the while. He looked towards his companions, but both shook their heads on the negative; they also hadn't seen anything of the sort.

"I fear we don't know what you are talking about, good man." Aelfgar warily said, not getting the complete picture behind their reactions. "We haven't seen anything of the like while on our way to here. We were flying on our Griffins the whole time, and I think something like that dangerous would not have escaped our reconnaissance."

Just as the man was about to reply, a frantic shout was heard from the other side of the village, "It's the beastmen! We were hunting and we encountered a large party of them, they were marching here! Gus stayed back so he could distract them, but I don't think that would give us much time!" the desperate cries of a small group of men echoed throughout the village, and for a few seconds, every resident froze still. Then the despair ensued.

The group that had went to receive them grabbed their weapons even more tightly than they had been, ready to jump to action at the minimum sign of hostility.

"I knew it! You three lead them here, to kill us and for them to eat us like if we were delicacies! Wh-!" the village elder was cut off from his ranting by Aelfgar

"Whoa, whoa! We don't have any idea what is happening, calm down!" he tried to calm down the crowd, putting his hands of front of himself in what was intended to be a calming motion.

The men were about to shout at him when a war horn was heard, everyone experiencing shivers running through their spines at its sound.

Aelfgar took this opportunity to say something that may appease them. "Listen, if you don't believe us that's fine, if you need proof of our un-involvement we could try to mediate between you and these beastmen you are so afraid of."

"You don't understand then! There is no negotiating with them, they want us in their bellies and they are not going to stop because a trio of unknown men wearing fancy armour asked them to!"

Aelfgar looked at his comrades. Technically, this already counted as a sign to bail out – a possible battle with an opposition of man-eating beasts, with apparent numerical inferiority, on any other case he would already given the order to retreat. But if the villager's words were true, leaving them here meant leaving them to be slaughtered, something his sense of honour couldn't accept, and by the looks of it, neither could his subordinates.

He wasn't about to order anyone to help strangers and possibly die doing so, but both of them seemed that would stay and defend the civilians without his orders. The three of them nodded, and then got to position. Elwyn mounted his Griffin and in moments he was searing through the sky again, patrolling around the settlement, while Aelfgar shouted at the petrified villagers.

"Calm down! Everyone that is not combat-able, follow my comrade here, he will protect them to his last breath!" The knight in question nodded and made his way towards a big building, likely a granary or a storage of some kind, to where the civilians started entering in almost-panic. "And whoever who can and will take up arms, follow me! I know that I'm an unknown factor, and if it's to ease your minds, I will myself take point! But I am not going to let any innocent be killed for no reason today, or ever!" The group of villagers who until that point were prepared to pounce on him felt a strange sensation pass through them at his speech, and suddenly felt stronger than ever and followed his commands with little resistance.

The other two griffins also took flight, following Elwyn for now, and were to attack any straggler that passed through the cracks and ran towards where the non-combatants took refuge.

Aelfgar did his best to put the villagers on a combat formation in chokepoints on the village's roads, towards from where the war horn was heard – but as they weren't trained soldiers, their formation would likely fall with a very small push.

To keep up with his word, the Griffin Captain stood a little further out, waiting for the war party to enter his sight. Not a lot of time passed until the first silhouettes of something vaguely resembling humanoid beings with many animal characteristics exited the forest, each carrying some kind of weapon or another, and some wearing crude-looking armours. And more and more poured out by the minute – there must have been way over a hundred, possibly even two hundred of them, all of them walking unhurriedly towards the village, their every movement bleeding confidence, borderline arrogance, and  _hunger_ , not the kind of a starved beast, but one who had been playing with their food.

As the odd group made its way to the settlement, Aelfgar unsheathed his sword and pointed it at them – interestingly enough, they did stop at that gesture, but if he read them correctly, none of them looked particularly concerned with him.

"State your business! What does a warband such as yours want from a small hamlet such as this one?" the elf asked with his best commander-voice, trying to appear as imposing as possible.

A big bear-like being that was mostly scars at this point laughed out loud, before replying to him with a mocking tone. "What do you think, human? How many times do we have to do the same thing until you all finally learn and get into the frying pot the moment we arrive?" the group of beastmen laughed as one for a moment at what looked to be their leader's taunt, before they all started shouting "MEAT!" and charged.

Before the beasts could do more than three steps, many of them hit the ground as arrows flew through the air at an impressive speed, most of them piercing through vital points – courtesy of Elwyn –, and several thunderbolts did the same – courtesy of the Griffins – but there were way too many enemies for them to mow down to do any significant difference on the numbers that were still charging towards them.

Under moments, he alongside the villagers were engaged in heated combat against the hulking attackers, with Aelfgar having a noticeable easier time doing so than the peasants, even strangely so. He quickly noted that he could overpower most of the assailants with not much effort, but again, they were heavily outnumbered so no matter how many enemies he fell, there was another one to take its place. In a battle of attrition he doubted he could last much longer, and slowly but surely, the combat moved more and more inwards, towards the storage building the rest of the villagers were sheltered.

The Griffins had to stop their magical attacks as they were running low on mana, so they switched to a more barbaric but effective nonetheless tactic of grabbing an enemy with their front talons and letting them fall from a high altitude. Not many of those who suffered that fate stood up again, most likely either dead or dying from having several bones pulverized.

As he was on the frontlines, he saw first-hand the brutality of their adversaries, when someone fell to their wounds, the beasts took no time to rip the poor bastard's arm or heart off and started to chew on it immediately. Let's just say, as time went on, he started to feel less badly about killing them outright.

But as the battle progressed, fatigue started to settle in, and even if each knight was individually superior to the beastmen, the enemy still held a sizable numerical advantage. He was still, however, not going to leave these people to a cruel fate. He could already hear his superior berating him for doing something so stupid, and chuckled at the image. Not long after, he took one hit too many and was about to pass out.

_"I don't regret my decision. What I regret is not being able to protect these people and my subordinates. Oh, my Lady, be kind with them on the beyond."_  Aelfgar thought as he closed his eyes, waiting for a finishing blow – one that didn't come. Opening his eyes again, what he saw filled him with awe, as all the attackers fell at the same time, and a radiant figure floated above their heads.

* * *

Scene change, a few hours prior

Sera was still trying to figure what the hell was going on, sitting on the overly decorated and extremely confortable diwan she herself had designed. Viewing and re-viewing the different tabs dedicated to the base's management, she had basically a big brother-esque power of being able to see everything within the city. And with everything, she meant  _everything_. It took only a few tries of using that feature to be certain that this couldn't have been a game, because the few couples she spied on doing… couple's things. Some highly detailed and breaking every single law on restricting what could be shown on DMMOs.

As she was looking over the city, she passed over the entrance and saw a group of three being given orders by one of the Generals. It was interesting seeing the NPCs act all alive, it was like the sensation she felt when she first created them in-game, which gave off almost limitless amount of inspiration.

Without thinking, she reached for her inventory and grabbed an empty book – one of many she had on her avatar, that way in the game she could write on the spot and afterwards could export it – and placed her palm on its blank pages. Before she noticed, black characters started appearing on the paper, appearing as if someone had written it with ink a long time ago.

Snapping out of her thoughts, she looked at the newly written book with a sense of amazement – she hadn't known she could still do that even when her HUD was unavailable. Perusing through newly-written pages for a moment, she then closed the book and stored it back in her inventory.

The three Griffin Knights took flight and started doing rounds around the city, but as soon as they left the sky above the floating island she couldn't follow them anymore.

There were so many unknowns about this world, like, what was out there? Were there other players? Was even any sentient being outside? Sera didn't know, and she certainly didn't know how powerful would she be – maybe level one hundred was a small fry, maybe not – and she was sure she didn't want to die for doing something stupid, as she didn't know if resurrection magic even worked in here.

Many divination items worked best if one knew what they wanted to see, and the three Griffin Knights worked perfectly as a beacon for just that. She reached again for her inventory and drew out a highly decorated floating mirror, a magic item called [Mirror of Remote Viewing], which was fairly low level but should do the work. If it reacted with anti-scrying measures, at least she would know there were other players out there.

Getting it to work took more time than what she would've thought, but after half an hour or so she was again looking at the three riders flying through the sky. However, her attention was mostly on their surroundings – a veritable sea of trees the likes she had only seen on Alfheim, and certainly not on the Earth she knew. So the real world was out, or at least the real world she knew.

She spent an indeterminate amount of time there, trying to figure how to move the focus for the mirror, until the Knights saw signs of civilization in their proximity.

Anxiety started to build in her stomach – as the knights descended upon the settlement, the truth would be shortly seen. Those knights were all around level mid-thirty to forty, if they were considered strong or weak she would have some sort of measurement scale on this world.

However, the meeting between the knights and the natives was cut short by something she couldn't figure out yet, and a few moments later the three separated, one started patrolling the skies with a bow on hand while another led children, women and the elderly towards a storage building, and the captain rallied the rest of the villagers on a combat formation.

Minutes later, a horde of were-creatures came out of the forest, the sight of many similar to some races of demi-humans from YGGDRASIL but some others were utterly bizarre. And they obviously didn't have the friendliest purposes in mind, seeing as they all had weapons drawn and were openly salivating.

She couldn't measure their individual power from where she was, so she decided to let the knights fight them and see how they fared. By the looks of the villagers, they would not survive for long, but she found that she really didn't care all that much.

She let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding when the beastmen started to fall like flies with only arrows from a low level NPC and from rather low-tier magic like [Thunderbolt] – certainly these enemies were on the level of  _trash_  by endgame standards if that was all it took to bring them down, so even if a thousand of those were to attack her they quite literally could not deal any damage to her.

As the battle progressed, she grew more and more disgusted by these demi-humans, and when she saw that the knights were starting to tire she began making preparations to teleport them out. She didn't want to lose NPCs if she could help it – resurrecting them cost quite a bit of coin that she wasn't sure she could her hands on as easily anymore. Also, if the NPCs acted as how their character backgrounds were written, and as far as she saw they did, it was borderline impossible for them to turn against her.

But seeing them desperately trying to defend the helpless villagers made her not follow with that plan – instead, at the last second she changed one of her equipped bracelets for the one which allowed her to use [Gate] when equipped alongside [Herald's Reverence] and teleported herself to the village – a rip in time and space in the form of an oval of pure darkness opening in the air a few dozen metres over the battle as she prepared a spell of homing magic arrows to finish the opposition.

The rays of white and gold light flew upwards for a moment before falling to their intended targets, turning them to ash in an instant. It was a rather mediocre tier six spell and one of the few crowd control ones she had, but it was rendered useless if the target had a little resistance to divine magic, something that obviously these demi-humans didn't have.

Slightly flapping her wings – and what a strange sensation that was – she descended upon the now silent crowd that was gaping at her entrance. Maybe she overdid it? She honestly didn't think so, in fact from her perspective she held back quite significantly. She tried her best to ignore the looks directed at her, and looked at her three creations that were panting and wheezing on the floor, obviously exhausted. The three griffins looked like they were in way better shape, but it was no wonder as they were higher level.

She took from her inventory three small potions and threw them at the knights. When the bottles cracked and the contents were poured on them, their fatigue dramatically receded and their wounds started to heal at an astonishing rate – from the natives' perspective –, and they took a moment to find their bearings before kneeling in a praying position towards her.

Maybe she hadn't thought her actions thoroughly enough, as she had momentarily forgotten her deity status she herself had written on her creations, and such an apparition should be strange to happen.

She finally noted that the look she was getting from the villagers was one of absolute stupefaction, as if they couldn't quite believe what their eyes were seeing. Were seraphim a rare sight? Because there wasn't much else she could think of that could have possibly shocked the peasants that much.  _"Is it the outfit? I mean, there were people that wore more skimpy-looking equipment back in the game, so this much shouldn't be that strange"_

Moving her attention back to the praying knights, "Raise your head, captain." She commanded, and the one in question did as told. He had hastily removed his helmet after being healed, making a mess out of his jaw-long auburn hair, which now didn't cover his very obviously elfin ears. "Don't you have a mission to complete? People back home count on you to report on your findings, you can't die and leave your brethren still on the dark of what has happened." She said softly, trying to not be heard by any bystander. The captain did not verbally answer; he clenched his jaw tightly before dropping his head low again while closing his eyelids, then got to his feet.

The situation had gone to hell almost as soon as he made land fall, but at least many innocent lives were saved, and more incredibly of all, the Goddess had answered his prayers. For a moment, he had thought that she was there to take him to the Hall of Heroes, but alas it looked like it was not his turn yet. Not that he complained, he liked still being alive, and there were many years to look forward to, but who would deny access to blissful afterlife?

But it was true that he couldn't let himself be finished off in the current situation of his Kingdom, as he had been given a very important task and now even more important as it seemed that the Celestial City was directly above a heat zone full to the brim of enemies that wanted to see his fellow man on a silver plate.

As he sheathed his sword, which he had been using to lean on to stand, his thoughts were cut short as the unmistakable sound of many horses quickly approaching from the north. Soon enough, the riders entered the village – a group of knights by the looks of it, with an aging commander taking point. Old, yes, but that man had a quick mind and was a veteran of the battlefield, Aelfgar could tell with a single glance at the newcomer's eyes.

"What happened here?"

* * *

The frontline had been broken. Commander Marcus Ervarius of the Draconic Kingdom had been dispatched to evacuate the small villages and towns in the area in an attempt to keep casualties low – manpower was a resource growing ever more precious each passing day, both in the battlefield and the regular fields, after all. He had also the authority to conscript anyone he deemed useful for battle – namely the young men. He wasn't versed on magic, so he couldn't judge potential on that field, as much as it could be useful, but what he could judge was whether a man was strong enough for the army and with enough coordination to wield a weapon.

As he approached his next destination alongside his small detachment, he couldn't help but see the enormous winged beasts flying just above Veage village, together with telltale columns of smoke from destroyed buildings. Were those new types of beastmen? They certainly didn't seem like anything he had ever seen, the closest thing would be a depiction of a dragon he had seen when he was a boy, only that these beasts didn't appear reptilian in nature, not in the slightest.

He hardened his resolve and made the march to fasten their pace, if there was anyone there alive he would do his best to defend them.

As he got closer, a different picture started to form on his mind. The fallen bodies of beastmen and huge piles of ash were a dominant sight, with very few bodies of the peasants that lived here mutilated in the typical brutality beastmen were known for – something completely out of the norm happened here.

As he reached the village's centre, the beastmen corpses gradually became less and less until only those piles of ash were present – and if those weren't testimony of the use of some kind of magic he would eat his boots –, but more importantly he noted the presence of four humanoid beings, surrounded by those giant flying creatures he had seen from afar, that he could now discern their features. The beasts looked like a strange mix of an eagle and a lion, then given the size of several men. Their heads and front paws – claws? – were like an eagle's, alongside their majestic wings, while the rest of their bodies were just like a lion's. All in all, their appearance was somewhat similar to the Empire's Hippogriffs. The beasts didn't appear hostile, but cautious of him and his men, studying their every move. He reciprocated their attitude, both sides entering on a momentaneous stalemate before the beasts seemed to  _scoff_   _at them_  and turn their heads to ignore them.

He then took note of the four very obviously foreign entities – three of them being Knights wearing very expensive-looking armour, and the last being the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes on, wearing one of the most scandalous outfits he had ever seen. She was also holding some sort of metal contraption that going by the light it radiated was certainly a magical item, and most importantly of all, she had pure white wings growing from her back. And was glowing.

Had he fallen to an ambush and now an agent of the gods have come to take his soul to their divine realm? He recognized an angel when he saw one, even if never before he had seen one – depictions of them all throughout history had been consistent, and this being in front of him checked all of them. Beauty to the point of perfection, powerful to the point even the magically stunted could feel their magic, holding weapons no mortal could even begin to understand their making, and having wings of pure white.

One of the foreign Knights rose, breaking him from his momentary stupor. Looking around, he saw the rest of the villagers sporting expressions that were similar to the one he had just a moment prior. Looking back, he saw that the men on his detachment were the same.

However astonishing these people's appearance was, he still had a job to do.

"What happened here?"

The knight that raised first, seemingly an officer comparing his surcoat to the other two, was the one to reply while he approached.

"Hello, sir. My name is Aelfgar from House Eileifr, Captain of the Griffin Knights; faithful servant to our Lady and loyal subject to His Majesty the Hero-King Kainen. May I know to whom I'm talking to?"

Ervarius didn't physically react to anything the now named Aelfgar said, for absolutely none of it ringed any bells on his mind. "I'm Marcus Ervarius, Commander on the army of Her Majesty's Draudillon Oriculus, ruler of the Draconic Kingdom." His voice did not carry any inflection as he blandly made his statement. Judging whether or not he was telling the truth was difficult, but then again, so was on the inverse.

The foreigner minutely narrowed his eyes at the name of the Kingdom, almost imperceptibly so. In fact, only the Commander caught it, and it was gone as soon as it came. The knight morphed his expression again to the polite one he used to introduce himself.

"Well, it's good to meet you, Sir Marcus." Both of them nodded at the same time, both apparently having similar customs. "As for what me and my subordinates are doing here; we've been dispatched on a mission to scout the surroundings of our great city in search of other civilizations – we find ourselves…" all throughout his explanation, Sera couldn't help to feel slightly embarrassed on the thoughtless way the elf was throwing information like if it were candy. He was her creation, after all, and when it comes to it it's ultimately her fault how the NPCs act. "… on a unique circumstance, shall we say…" Well at least he could think,  _sometimes,_  before opening his mouth. "… and we are on the dark when it comes to the outside world. My companions and I found this hamlet, and when we were about to ask for directions to a city or where we could talk with an official, a marauding group of beastmen attacked the village. I and the others decided to defend the people from certain death – and the result is as you see."

Ervarius examined the supposed noble in front of him – an Elf, by the looks of it, and not a Dark Elf or a Wood Elf, either. Myth says that once existed a race of fair skinned elves which were the most populous of their kind, but were hunted down to extinction by the Eight Greed Kings, like so many others. Like any normal human, he wasn't knowledgeable on traditional elvish faith, so he chose to ignore it for now – if they find common enemies with the beastmen, he wouldn't give a rat's ass about their beliefs as long as they helped each other overcome doom.

Judging by the information the 'Griffin Knight' Captain gave him – which became patchier and patchier as it went on, they were part of a city-state monarchy that had no connections to the outside world, possibly somewhere in the middle of that woodland hell-hole. The title of Hero-King was the most telling part, it meant that this Kainen led his people and saved them from certain ruin – which aligned with his thoughts about the elves from myths. Maybe they are a remnant group from when the Eight Greed Kings scorched the lands? Surely hiding deep in the Great Forest of Asdra could shield them from being found by outsiders – at the cost of possibly being found and hunted down by the roaming beastmen. It did not look like they were all that concerned with the ravenous monsters, though, if their demeanour was anything to go by – could they even possibly hunt them for sport? It was an unlikely thought.

First and foremost, Marcus Ervarius was a military man, not a politician. He couldn't care less about international and even internal politics, and such a mindset often made opportunities pass by. He decided to believe the elf for now, feeling the same kind of feeling nobles give off and more importantly for Ervarius, the feeling of a powerful warrior. The aura around Aelfgar was what he would expect from people like Gazef Stronoff, who had many a tale of heroics and superhuman feats under his name. Maybe he  _is_  talking to a Stronoff equivalent, and wasn't that food for thought.

"Very well then, but we need to evacuate the population to the closest walled city first. We could accompany you there – or more accurately," The old Commander said while moving his eyes to look at the giant flying beasts "… you could accompany us there. I could introduce you to the local governor in such case, to make the first appearance of your people as smooth as possible. You would have to excuse the restlessness in most of my countrymen's minds – as you can see, we find ourselves in a quite… dire situation." He finished his proposition. Another reason he wanted them to accompany the group, beyond being seemingly powerful individuals each, was to keep an eye of them – one could not be too careful in these trying times. At least in this way, they couldn't be attacked from a blind spot even if any confrontation with these elves ultimately resulted in defeat.

The elf seemed to think about it for a second before amiably agreeing.

When Marcus made to finally address the angel, he found that she was not there, as if she never existed. He hadn't realized she had vanished… it couldn't be, had he hallucinated? Had been she a trick of light?

…

At the end, it didn't matter anyway, so he didn't spare a second thought on it. What was important was getting the people out of here as soon as possible, as this zone was no longer safe for habitation.

Just before the caravan departed, one of the foreign Knights asked if anyone had spare arrows – he had emptied his quiver on the recent fight. Every one of his men looked at the elf strangely, because what kind of Knight used a bow? These elves were so strange.

* * *

Perspective change, back with Sera.

That had been so stupid. The stunt she pulled was completely unnecessary and had exposed her to potential danger, and she had barely prepared – heck, she didn't even activate her [Ring of Greater Invisibility]. Not that it would help much against someone who knew what to look for and was prepared, but she is dealing with too many unknowns to be carefree.

She was flying over the enormous forest while invisible, trying to clear her head with the almost magical visage of an unspoiled green world when a sudden [Message] interrupted her thoughts.

["Sera-sama! Where are you, I felt you disappeared and I almost died from a heart attack! You can't leave like that!] Drifa's almost hysterical voice echoed on Sera's mind, almost physically beating down her brain.

[Calm down, Drifa. There was… an incident that required my attention. I'm currently on my way back, don't worry.]

[What?! No, wait! Stay there, I'll be there in a second! Daith, teleport me to our Lady at once!]

Sera sweatdropped at the last part,  _"You didn't have to say that through [Message] though."_

Under a moment, Sera was suddenly in the company of a very flustered silver-haired angel who was fully equipped for battle. The seraphim took less than a second to register her surroundings before turning towards the golden-haired angel and started scolding her.

"My Lady, you can't go out like that! What would happen if you were to be ambushed by an enemy that you couldn't best? What about your people, would you abandon them without a second thought!? I-!"

"Calm. Down. Drifa!" Sera said, accentuating every word so the Valkyrie heeded her words. "I was not abandoning anyone! As I said, there was a situation that required my attention – but we can't continue this here. Let us go back for now, but first, here," She said as she withdrew from her inventory another [Ring of Greater Invisibility] "Put this on and activate it."

The silver-headed woman looked like she still had plenty to say, but swallowed her words for now and did as told. She wondered as of why they didn't go back instantly via teleportation, as it would be a faster and safer way than flying all the way over an unknown and possibly dangerous area.

Midway back however, Sera abruptly stopped, and Drifa was quick to follow. Before she could ask any question, her eyes saw a picture she had somehow overlooked, of several animal-like biped beings stalking under the leaves of the trees below. And there were many of them, possibly several hundred.

The Valkyrie turned her head towards Sera in inquiry, to which the golden-haired angel answered, "Those are apparently called beastmen, and they prey upon humans native to this world, who are not all dissimilar to the people living in Almha. I went to a human village to deal with one of such groups, because our scouts were also there and they were being overwhelmed." as she looked at the demi-humans pass below with disdain in her eyes.

Turning around at a 'yip'-like sound, Sera saw Drifa weeping heavily for some reason, which made her wave her arms in the air in a futile attempt to calm the seraph, or understand why she was crying on the first place, or something – she wasn't sure – but stopped as the Valkyrie sniffed and cleared her eyes. "I'm sorry, my Lady – I-I thought that you grew bored of us and wanted to go away… I didn't know that you were actually more caring than I would have thought, going as far as to save your followers… you have my most sincere apologies!" Drifa said as she managed to make a dogeza whilst in mid-air.

Sera did not know how to react to that, so she nodded once nervously and turned her head again towards their destination. The floating island where the Celestial City sat was already in full view at that point, and it took another fifteen to twenty minutes at full speed until they reached Heavenscrown Castle.

* * *

Scene change: Strategy room.

Six figures sat alone in a rather dark room – which only had a single chandelier enchanted with a [Continual Light] spell, as its walls had no windows to let natural light in – all around an enormous oval-shaped table that had an equally large map planted on it. Not that such map was of any use anymore, but they hadn't had enough time to replace it yet. They hadn't had much time for do anything yet, to be honest – it had been less than half a day since they were transported to a brand new world since the last one was  _also_  destroyed.

One of the figures, a handsome if aging man with short dark hair and equally short beard with quite a few white hairs here and there, wearing fine clothes if utilitarian in design and a sky-blue mantle over his left shoulder, was currently reporting to the other five individuals present.

This was Lyn, the Azure General. Earlier he had received a [Message] from the reconnaissance group, detailing their recent experience, which he deemed important enough to call for a meeting with the rest of High Command and the King.

He also made sure to make clear to the boy he sent on the errand that if it weren't for their Lady's kindness, he would be food for the crows. As much as Lyn didn't like the thought, he needed to berate the Captain for his short-sightedness and kind bleeding heart. Almost dying trying to protect strangers from an unknown foe? If a foe at all? What the Eileifr did was pure foolishness, what if those 'beastmen' were actually at war with this so-called 'Draconic Kingdom' that village was part of, and with his actions he made Almha enemies that would otherwise have left them alone?

"… From what he reported, the locals have told Captain Eileifr that these beastmen prey on humanoid beings, humans and elves alike, with no remorse or restraint. There is no evidence on them preying on dwarves but it's the same in the negative, so they should be considered a hazard to all our citizens." Lyn moved the discussion towards the demi-human topic.

"And you are saying that we are right above their territory?" The Emerald questioned, being careful with all the details, trying to form the best strategy possible to deal with the situation, most likely.

"Bah, I wouldn't worry too much, if only three wet-behind-the-ears knights were enough to keep up with a group of a few hundred of them 'beastmen'." The Onyx grumbled, fondling his thick beard with his right hand as he hit the table with his other hand's fingers in a rhythmic fashion. "Heh, I bet if their entire forces were to clash with my Paladins, we wouldn't suffer a single casualty."

"You are forgetting something Tvor, those knights were being aided by our Lady's sacred beasts, and they still were going to lose if not for divine intervention." The Emerald remarked, watching at the Onyx with disapproval.

"Tch. I know. What I mean, is that three of  _my_  soldiers" The dwarf shot a provoking glance at the Azure, "would have not have any problems dealing with these sacs of fur. I bet that they wouldn't even need the help from the sacred beasts."

Lyn however didn't take the bait, "To inform you, one of the knights involved was previously part of the Paladin's Order" he said dryly.

"See! You turn 'em soft, old man." said Tvor before closing his mouth when everyone else on the room sighed exasperatedly. This wasn't an appropriate moment for their usual bickering.

"…"

"The question is, what measures should we take towards these beastmen, a preemptive strike? Or should we wait and see? We don't know their full capabilities, we don't know if they are capable of levitation magic or if they can fly naturally to be assured that just by being suspended on the air we could relax. And what about this 'Draconic Kingdom'? I mean, if their ruler is called  _Dragon Queen_ , should we expect the presence of dragons out there? Because they certainly would not find being suspended in the sky a great deterrent to attack us."

"What I think we should do," Started the Emerald, "is patrol the surface with a force strong enough to not being overwhelmed by an attack of such a scale. I propose around twenty Paladins or a force of similar strength to be on a single patrol, given how the Captain handled these demi-humans." At the Onyx's move to argue, the Emerald raised a hand, "We don't know for sure the enemies' strength, so even if it feels a little excessive, it's better to have too many combatants than too few. Remember, if we lose soldiers, we don't only lose their lives but we put the lives of the rest of the citizenry in danger." The dwarf's protests died on his throat as he grumbled, but ultimately agreed with the logic.

"I say if anyone is a problem, we just need to burn 'em to a crisp and be done with it. It'll serve as a good example and everything too!" the Crimson said, boredom clearly starting to seep into her expression.

"Khm." The King coughed, "Phyra, we got over this already. Strategy does not mean 'oh well, just burn it', as I've told you many times." he said as he massaged his temple with his right hand.

"Well, it should!" she retorted.

Everyone else in the room sighed, again.

* * *

Scene change: back with Aelfgar

"Reported everything?" Asked Elwyn as he approached a seemingly just-waking-up Aelfgar who was lying down on the floor of one of the emptier carts. They had been given the privilege to rest on here on their way to the nearby city thanks to their heroic deeds of protecting innocent citizens.

"Yeah, I think I got it all." He sat up, faking a yawn that ended up becoming real.

Elwyn smirked "Tired?"

"Like if I fought an army alone and barehanded. The adrenaline crash is killing me, man." The captain said, falling back to old habits without noticing. His long-time friend chuckled, "I think I can imagine." He said, still grinning. "C'mon, pal, it's my turn to rest a bit." Aelfgar groaned but did so, grumbling "jackass" as he got to his feet – but Elwyn was already out cold before he finished badmouthing him.

Jumping out of the cart, he started walking while keeping pace with the rest of the caravan as he stretched. Suddenly, something nudged him on the shoulder, and when turning his head he realized it was been the giant beak of his partner, who was now looking at him with concern. Smiling faintly, he patted the Griffin's beak, "It's alright. I'm not wounded or anythin'" he said, but the Griffin did not look all that convinced. "I swear!" he finished while holding in front of his face a pendant that normally clung from his neck. His partner had the  _gall_  to snort at him, which caused him to cry in indignation. However, this small banter was interrupted by the laughs of a child, who was on one of the nearby carts that carried the villagers. The youngster was giggling, eyes sparkling at the sight, utterly unaware of the severity of the situation.

That last thought made Aelfgar sober up.

A few moments later, Commander Marcus approached him, "We should get sight of the city shortly. With luck, we won't encounter any more of those savages, but keep on your toes. I imagine he, " He said while signalling with his head at the only knight that was still in the sky, doubling as a scout, " would notice if any group starts following us, or if there's an ambush ahead. And hopefully tell us if he does"

"You would be correct. He is in fact also a rather good magic caster, so even enemies using normal means to get around undetected would be spotted by him." Aelfgar said offhandedly, not perceiving the look of confusion the older man sent him.

"A magic caster? Excuse me, but I thought you were Knights?" Marcus inquired. It isn't as much as there can't be a good fighter who can also use magic, but is more about efficiency. Normal people dedicated to a single career, a knight to the sword, a magic caster to magic, an archer to the bow. Sure, there are people like the Holy Kingdom's Paladins who were also magic casters – even if their magical prowess didn't match up to their physical might – but people like those were few and far in between, to the point that for many they might as well never happen. This group of foreign knights did come off as very powerful, but Marcus had accredited that feeling to their swordsmanship, that even if he didn't see first-hand, he saw the results, plus the way the three of them moved indicated experienced warriors.

Maybe that is the result of living on isolation for who knows how many hundred years being surrounded by man-eating savages.

"Oh, yeah. He was gifted by our Lady's blessing in the art of divine magic. He can cast up to tier four without breaking a sweat in combat, quite a feat for someone his calibre actually. He was previously a Paladin but after it was discovered that he had an affinity with one of the Griffins he was transferred to my unit." The Knight Captain said flippantly, as if talking about people who could do such heroic feats was utterly normal. Sure, tier four wasn't Fluder Paradyne's legendary tier six level of magic, but that didn't mean that it was normal in any stretch of the imagination. This little hint was worth a lot of information if it were to be true – a hypothetical military that had several people on such level was a great threat.  _If_  any of the things Aelfgar said was true, it painted a both hope and dread-inducing picture. Hope that with their help they could survive the current onslaught, and dread to be weak enough as to be easily conquered by them afterwards.

When it came to it, he preferred alive but conquered by the newcomers than dead and eaten by the beastmen. None of his thoughts were reflected on his face however, and the Knight Captain did not seem to catch on any of them.

"Interesting…" Ervarius trailed off, "oh, look. We can already see the walls of Arxtu, one of our main cities." …that hadn't been conquered yet, but the elves didn't need to know of that detail yet.

Aelfgar looked at the slowly nearing city, but didn't visibly react.

Inside his mind, he recognized it for what it was, a city. It had fortified walls surrounding it, certainly, but even from this far he could pick up the defensive weaknesses that came from a place where the main concern was not its defence. In some parts of the wall, the construction seemed to be in a bad state of disrepair and in others there were parts that looked like temporary patches that ended being permanent.

But if the city could last however long those walls were standing, it must have been for some reason so he decided not to comment.

The rest of the travel was met with no setbacks beyond some guards approaching the group and being visibly on edge at the sight of the three Griffins, even when their own comrades told them that there was no danger.

As they got at the feet of the walls, the three Knights and  _especially_  their mounts had to stay out the city for the time being as Commander Marcus went to talk with the Governor.

There wasn't much they could do, so Aelfgar agreed without kicking up much of a fuss, and the Knights and Griffins went a little away from the main road, under the shade of a large tree.

"But don't you think it's a little strange that they didn't warn in advance that we were coming? I mean, we were traveling for hours, surely in such amount of time they could have prepared themselves to receive us." Said Aelfgar, wondering on one glaring problem he couldn't understand it even existed. "I mean, [Message] and bam, they'll instantly know what to expect."

The archer of the group disagreed. "Remember that not everyone is magically attuned. I would not be surprised if no one who we travelled with could use the most basic of magics. I certainly didn't feel anything magical coming off them." He said, to which the third knight nodded in agreement.

"Huh. I guess you could be right." He said as he petted his partner's side.

The Griffins hadn't rested at all since departure and promptly threw themselves at the ground to do just that, even if they had stamina that could be compared to an army's each.

Not much later a small figure approached, it was the child from before, who was looking at the snoring beasts with an expression of open wonder as he got closer and closer.

The three knights looked at the kid and then between themselves amusedly, but otherwise they did nothing to stop him. He stretched his tiny arm towards Aelfgar's partner, but before he touched the beast, the kid turned his head towards them, looking for permission.

Taking this opportunity for some harmless fun, Aelfgar said with a polite smile on his face "Go ahead kid, but be aware…" at this his smile turned dark, and the child's eyes shot open in surprise "that he may decide to have you for an after-nap snack- Oof!" he couldn't finish scaring the kid as Elwyn hit him in the back of the head with the flat of his hand. "Don't spook children, idiot." Was all the archer had to say, and the other knight again nodded in agreement.

"Hey, what's the worst thing that could happen, anyway? It's not as if this overgrown chicken would actually do that, and you know it!" At that, the Griffin in question opened his eyes and squawked indignantly. "And what's this, is that a proper way to talk to your superiors?"

Elwyn, completely unimpressed, answered with the least amount of energy he could muster. "No, Sir Idiot, sir. I shall properly address you from now onwards, Sir Idiot, sir." He said with a monotone voice. Internally however, he was cackling madly – it had always been so easy to rile up Aelfgar, and it always was funny.

"No, not that! Argh!..." their captain started to get more and more flustered, and he could hear the clinks his armour made as he tried his best to contain his laughter. The child, however, did not have such reservations as he was on the ground laughing madly at the expense of the 'respected' Griffin Knight Captain. The kid's laughter caused a chain reaction, first the two knights joined in, then the (newly awoken) griffins, and finally even Aelfgar himself started chuckling.

Their laughter stopped when a nervous looking woman approached them, "Ysa, there you are, come here!" she ran towards the kid on the floor and held her tightly in her arms. "Excuse us, milords, Ysa didn't know what she was doing, she is a child after all. Please…" She was one of the villagers that they had accompanied on the trek to the city, a young woman with dirty blonde hair tied up in a bun and clothed in a classic village-girl outfit. She had overheard some parts of the conversations the soldiers had during the journey, and from the few snippets she caught, she understood that these elves were Knights –a title only reserved for nobility, so she didn't want to risk upsetting them, because no one would put themselves between an angry noble and a simple peasant. As one of the elves raised a hand, she flinched but didn't loosen the hold she had on her little sister – but her predictions of punishment were proven to be mistaken as she felt no pain, she cautiously looked at the knight in front of her. He was flailing his hands in front of her, his face morphed to an expression of unsureness as if he didn't fully know what was happening and didn't know what to do. Finally, a sound escaped his voice "I-It's nothing, don't worry about it! It's nothing, I won't do anything! I didn't do anything!" and continued mumbling similar lines.

The two knights at his back started chuckling again, to which he turned and threw at their heads a loose pommel he withdrew from a small satchel. The three of them started bickering back and forth, seemingly ignoring both of the sisters, an opportunity she took advantage of and quickly made to sneak away. Her plans were foiled, however, when the one with cerulean hair tapped her on the shoulder, making her yelp in surprise. Turning her head around, she found that the other two were still squabbling, and the one who poke her was holding his index finger over his mouth while closing one eye. "Sorry about that, girl. I understand why would you worry, but the captain isn't that kind of man." He whispered so only she could hear him, and made a motion to tell her she could go. She didn't fully comprehend what he had said until she was far away from the group of knights.

Not long after the young woman with her sister departed, a guard approached them to tell them they could go inside the city, but that their… mounts would cause too much of an uproar so he asked kindly to left them there. No one objected to it and followed the guard through the gates. All the while, Aelfgar was being updated on his orders via [Message].

* * *

Scene change: somewhere near the Great Forest of Asdra

"My King! We've seen! We've seen!" A small beastman that had come from patrol, yelling that he had encountered something very intereting. However, the Beast King was seriously considering snapping the pipsqueak's neck so he ended his insufferable prattling – who had accepted this squirt into his grand army?

"An enormous rock, in the sky! Floating, floating, like a boat, but in the air! With high walls made of strange stones!"  _That_ was more interesting "not much else could we see, you see, they see! Walls too high! Only a castle on sight! But we could smell prey, much, much prey!"

Hmm, so the cattle had gotten themselves on some sort of floating island to escape his advance? Did they honestly thought that just being temporarily out of reach meant he wouldn't hunt them there?

"Mhh… where did you say you saw this place?" the Beast King asked, his strong, commanding voice could be heard all throughout his war tent. He took another bite of the delicious  _steak_  he had in his claws.

"Yes, yes! Deep in  _your_  forest my king, close to the great, great lake!" the small creature continued with a high-noted laugh of pure glee. "I must say, my lord, its smell of prey was! MHH! Just on a whole new level! I couldn't stop salivating! But! BUT! The spoils go to you first, my lord, and I know! I obey! but please give this one a small! Just the smallest bite! Of the one whose scent was just! SUBLIME!"

The Beast King clenched his jaws with more force than necessary. The cattle, settling on  _his_  territory? No, that could not be left alone, it will tarnish his reputation and some would start to wonder his ability as a leader. Also, a great city in the sky would be perfect for the capital city of his new Empire, his new order. He threw away his almost-finished steak, which the pipsqueak expertly snatched from the air and started munching on.

"There is not much left in this place anyhow, we need to find a new place to secure food. Tell everyone we are leaving within a day. We have a new target, and this time it seems it's going to be the most delicious one yet." He chuckled darkly at the end.

In the background, destroyed city walls were uselessly resting on the ground while most of the buildings within burned or were already turned to ash. Red painted the grounds around the encampment, but the screams for mercy finished long ago. This is what the world was going to look in the future; the Beast King would make sure of it.

* * *

Scene change: The Floating Metropolis of Almha, the Goddess' realm.

Sera rested on the diwan in the room while her eyes went from perusing the Base Management tabs to making eye contact with Drifa, and back to looking at the management tabs.

It had been a great luck that her creations – at least the great majority of them – didn't need her to guide them constantly, as she had made a very in-depth description of how Almha worked as a society in one of those books she wrote a few years back. The exception being, of course, the two 'supernatural' beings that were the left and right hands of 'the Goddess'. If she were to have to deal with the same looks that she got from Drifa from every other NPC, she would most likely go mad with anxiety. As things are, the 'mortal' creations were mostly independent and the Hero-King with his advisors handled all problems, with none to this point being given to her to task. Seeing Kainen on the desk of his office, almost drowning in paperwork, made her wonder how anyone sane could handle such a heavy responsibility. Somewhere else in the world, deep underground, a skeletal being felt a chill run down his spine for the briefest of moments.

Sera turned the camera to spy on other parts of the city, each time being more and more fascinated by how well her written descriptions translated to this reality. Characters that she only had referenced in books because she couldn't create them due to reaching the level cap – and not being important enough to warrant the use of the premium item to create a companion NPC – were there, living and walking around as if they always had done so. Many questions invaded her thoughts,  _"Will the population grow by the end of the week, like in the game, or will it grow naturally like normal human beings? If at all?"_  She studied one of the tomes she had written some time ago, wondering how the hell could a few thousand words imprinted on a digital paper could make things exist. Beyond the whole thing of being transported to the New World alongside all her personally created NPCs, how come that the POPs were changed by the whims of a piece of lore that wasn't even written on their character backgrounds – back on YGGDRASIL, one couldn't do that to a POP –, so it was an enigma. And one that made her feel most uncomfortable.

Whole Noble Families that had only a few key characters originally were populated with NPCs that she had only described. Did she still possess that power? In this world? She didn't want to test it yet, the concept of bringing a whole being to life with mere words weirded her out too much.

Moving her eyes towards the floating mirror in the room, she tried for the umpteenth time to make it show anything else than that particular patch of trees. No luck.

"Sera-sama, what are you going to do about the situation?" The silver-headed woman that refused to leave her side finally asked.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Sera asked back, turning her head towards the woman, but still swinging her arms around the mirror in a vain attempt at making it work.

"Your city, milady. And your followers. They are on the middle of enemy territory, are they not? In peril of possible annihilation by these beastmen." The Valkyrie said while looking at the 'surveillance windows' that shown different parts of Almha.

Sera waved her hand dismissing the topic. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. These demi-humans weren't all that strong, they likely would not be able to injure me even if I did nothing. And the Hero is dealing with the situation, so there is little need for me to meddle in right now. If I were to protect them from every problem, they will not grow and learn from their experiences. If I were to disappear then, they would be left helpless in this world."

"I knew it! My Lady, you are thinking of abandoning us!" Drifa cried, her voice becoming wobbly.

"No, Drifa, I do not. I was talking on the hypothetical. I never would tire of my creations, but I am not infallible and there might be a point in the future we find an enemy that is powerful enough to… kill me." If the logic of MMOs applied to this world, then they would run into one such ex-player or something similar sooner rather than later… if any other player had even come to this world.

Drifa's eyes widened at her Lady's blunt statement, before moving her head downwards, obscuring her face. Sera coughed, steering the conversation back to the demi-humans.

"Well, if they prove to be more of a threat than I imagined, we might need to mobilize and fight them ourselves. If it comes to that, I'll count on you, just like in the past."

At these words, Drifa seemed to cheer up, thinking on accompanying her Lady into the battlefield like so many times before. She immediately was lost in thought, reminiscing old battles fought against many different enemies during the Dawn Era, before her Lady created her own mortal realm, though her memories are quite fuzzy. Still, it had been a while since they fought a worthy adversary; the last one had been a Primordial Dragon and that was before The Departure. These beastmen will probably measure up to such an enemy, but they may at least give her some entertainment.

She wouldn't let those monsters trample on her Lady's beautiful creation, as she was its shield. Just like Daith would take their when their rightful end came, Drifa would defend the lives of the innocent that were not ready yet – it was her role in the grand scheme of the world. As long as they were devout followers of Sera-sama, she would defend them from any outside menace.

The 'Goddess' was ignoring her again however, giving her full attention to the aggravating magic item. Thankfully, after so many attempts, something clicked on Sera's mind and she understood what to do to make the [Mirror of Remote Viewing]'s field of view to change.

What she saw next was… another patch of trees, unsurprisingly. Trying to remember more or less where the village she visited earlier was, she finally caught it on the feed. The place was abandoned and some buildings have been destroyed, and there were no corpses littering the ground anymore – but the blood and the ashes stayed. Sera hummed, speculating.  _"Something or someone removed the corpses. It couldn't have been the knights because they were on a hurry, so who else? The beastmen?"_ Following such train of thought, she realized that her sources of information – as limited as they were – were from a single perspective. The perspective of the apparent victims, true, but she knew next to nothing about these Dem-humans beyond their appetite for human flesh and their war on the Draconic Kingdom. No intel on hierarchy, tactics or customs – and behind such a large horde there  _should_ be a figurehead leading, because if it weren't the case they would have descended to infighting quite rapidly.

But how could she gather intelligence on the beasts if they attack humanoids in sight? Most of her creations are humanoid, with few exceptions, and none of those were particularly optimal for infiltration. The [Mirror of Remote Viewing] was only so useful, but it didn't have audio feed so what she saw through it could be subject to interpretation.

Making sweeping motions to change the mirror's view quickly. Within minutes she found an encampment of these beings… which sight only served to make her disdain for them grow.

"Drifa, look at this" Sera beckoned her fellow seraphim to watch what the [Mirror of Remote Viewing] was spying.

Said silver-headed woman frowned slightly, "Such savages." But made no other motion or comment. She pitied the poor souls, but she wouldn't move a finger for someone who wasn't her Lady's follower. That is the way of the world.

"You were right to ask for an action against these," Sera said with an unimpressed face "barbarians. We should look into their political structure, for if they were to turn against us, it would be more efficient to cut off their heads and let the body fall. Less possible casualties this way, too."

"But what if they continue attacking either way? What if they don't have leaders at all?" Drifa asked, joining in the strategizing.

"They would just prove that they are not even sentient, not different from a simple bear or tiger. Putting them down would not be a problem, then." Her words were so cold even Sera herself was rather surprised by them. She had thought about these beastmen like if they were one of those olden cannibalistic tribes back in Earth, but she did not feel an ounce of pity at the thought of eradicating them… was she trying to demonize them to make it easier to kill? Yes. No. Maybe?

Well, she had never been much on sympathy anyways. Even seeing a live action human slaughterhouse and she didn't feel that much for the ones being dismembered, only slight pity, if even that.

She tried to picture the same happening to her children, her creations, but a quickly growing scalding rage at the thought made her stop.

This new body, beyond the trivialities of gender, had its own distinctive psychological differences that were becoming more and more notorious as time went on. Before, Sera had looked up stuff like this while searching for information for a story he had been working on. He hadn't felt much beyond morbid curiosity, and hadn't thought much about the victims then. Now, he heard a faint voice in the back of her head whispering something she could not yet recognize.

Now, her senses didn't really change all that much, but only when talking about strangers. When talking about the denizens of Almha, she felt a powerful drive to make sure they were alright, one she couldn't say if came from her attachment as their creator, or something else.

She needed to take Daith with her sometime in the near future, to see if resurrection magic still worked as in the game. Checking again the location of the encampment she saw through the mirror, she grinned as an idea came to her mind.

Reaching for her temple with her right hand, she contacted via [Message] one of the few people she could lore-wise communicate with without it being seen as strange.

* * *

Scene change: the Draconic Kingdom's Capital, Royal Palace.

Dragon Queen Draudillon Oriculus massaged her brow in a futile attempt to make her headache recede. It hadn't helped before and it wouldn't help now, but she did it more out of taxis at this point than in a genuine hope of tuning it down.

She had already done today's session for Cerabrate, which added to her migraine. As much as she despised the man, the help Crystal Tear provided to her country was indisputable, so if she had to swallow her pride for a while so her people continued living, she would do so in a heartbeat.

Then she read the report, and she felt her heart start crawling up her throat. It said that the south-eastern front was no more, and the majority of the forces were either routed or completely annihilated. Luckily, the commander present had made the right decision and called for an evacuation of the nearby towns and villages. The next report stated that most of the civilians made it out safely, apart from two unfortunate groups.

Then was a report that made her to blink repeatedly, and then read it again. And again. It was a message from Governor Dialtaren Arcarius, saying that some  _interesting_  foreigners had come in with a group of evacuated civilians, a small group of three knights who allegedly fought off a beastman war party with only their three mounts. As baffling and unbelievable that statement was, it had the backing of one Marcus Ervarius, so they had considered it true.

What was even more baffling, however, was that these three knights had come on a 'reconnaissance mission' looking for other civilizations. They claimed that the country they came from was located deep in the forest – which should have been impossible since it was beastman territory – and willing to establish international relations… but not specified which kind. They also said that they were no diplomats, and one would make its way to Arxtu whenever it was acceptable. How did these elves contact with someone far away without moving? Because it would be stupid of them to use methods such as [Message] in these scenarios, as conversation could be easily hijacked. No, it had to be something else.

But if what they said was true, and these three warriors were worth more than a hundred beastmen, then it may be worth a shot to get into a deal with them. From both sides, they might be able to finally punch back, and an amiable nation to the east would permit farther-reaching commerce, which would be a boon to their mostly emptied out coffers.

Who knows, if everything goes better than she expects, the Draconic Kingdom may not need to 'rent' soldiers from the Theocracy anymore. In a perfect world, she also wouldn't have to degrade herself anymore to gain favours from a perverted (if powerful) man. But Draudillon was far from a deluded child hoping for the best. With luck, these newcomers will reduce even a bit the weight on her treasury.

She looked at the map of her Kingdom, specifically where Arxtu was located. It'll take around a day to reach the city going at full speed, and a courier wouldn't reach that much earlier to make it worth it.

The Dragon Queen sighed.  _"Let's hope something comes off this."_

* * *

"What!?" A figure dressed on priestly attire shouted in surprise, which was a strange reaction coming from his normally calm and rational demeanour. He was a man somewhere in his mid-forties with short hair and keen eyes, and the youngest in the conclave of the Theocracy, Cardinal of Earth Raymond Zarg Lauransan and commander of the Six Scriptures. He received news from his agents and moles in the Draconic Kingdom, and he expected some of it, but other developments came out of the blue that left him honestly gobsmacked.

Continuing reading, he tried to make sure he wasn't hallucinating when he passed on a few lines. Finally the frontline between the forces of Oriculus and the beasts was broken, as he had predicted would happen, and the beasts didn't take long to start ravaging the countryside. That was fine; it wasn't that what he was concerned with. Apparently, three elves had come to the rescue of one village that was being raided by a force of about half a thousand beastmen and won. That meant that these elves were strong enough to be equivalent to members of the Sunlight Scripture or, Gods forbid, the Black Scripture; and that meant one thing and only one thing – they were dealing with elven godkin. From what his insiders could gather, they came from a powerful kingdom somewhere beyond the Great Forest of Asdra, and were not knowledgeable on this part of the world.

This was going to be a nightmare. On one side, there was using the Draconic Kingdom as a meatshield against the beastmen's onslaught – which fortunately or unfortunately meant they needed to 'provide assistance' so the country didn't fall automatically and left the Theocracy in a tight spot. Having the Draconic Kingdom in the middle also helped in the way that they gained a good payment for their services while also being a good way to train field experience for their soldiers, so it was a win for the Slane Theocracy. But now these new elves appeared and were perhaps powerful enough to stop the beastmen – in such case, that income would disappear, which wasn't that much of a deal, but also raised the questions on how they became so powerful, and how will they react to the Elven Kingdom the Theocracy was at war with. Will they be neutral? Will they ally with the Elven King? In such a case, Draudillon would likely just let them march through her territory without kicking up a fuss – as her nation would be too tired for her to oppose them.  _If_  they don't conquer the Draconic Kingdom outright while it still was weakened – one could not discard such actions from an elf, much less from an elven nation.

A hand tightly grasping his shoulder snapped out of his contemplation. Raymond turned towards the one in question, and saw that it was Ginedine. "You are overthinking something again." The older man stated while scrutinizing his fellow Cardinal's face. He then turned to the documents on the table, seemed to think for a second, and looked at Raymond again. "What were on these reports?"

Raymond proceeded to tell the man a shortened version of the report, which information also seemed to surprise him, before the Cardinal of Water demanded to be given the paper. Raymond complied, and watched closely how the other Cardinal's face morphed into worry as he read through the document.

Giendine looked up, "This might be a problem." Which was an understatement in Raymond's view, but he did not comment on that.

"There is also the appearance of an inhumanly strong adventurer in E-Rantel, a possible godkin. Momon, was his name?" Raymond pondered as he rubbed his jaw, slightly on edge with the events unfolding. "Do you think he has any connection with the newcomers?" He asked Giendine, to which the old Cardinal tilted his head faintly to the side.

"I don't know, but by the locals' recount, he alongside his partner came to the city from the west, not east. And his companion's ears could be easily seen and she wasn't an elf, so Momon being one is unlikely." He sighed, "But I wouldn't rule the possibility out, at least not yet."

Both of them stood on silence for a moment.

"You don't think it's like with the Evil Dieties, do you?" The younger Cardinal asked. It could be even worse, like with the Eight Greed Kings. Both times the Theocracy was taken by surprise, and if these new people where anything like them, the Slane country would be caught off guard again.

"I don't know, Raymond. I don't know."

* * *

Scene change: Great Forest of Asdra, about ten kilometres away from the Celestial City.

Sounds coming from two different sources clashed and mixed into a cacophony of sounds from a heavily armed and armoured group approaching another group that was busy eviscerating and gutting their next meal, with the shouts of despair and pain of those suffering that fate.

The camp was stained red with blood, and some extremities were haphazardly thrown about in the ground, forgotten.

As the armoured group got closer, an alarm signal sounded throughout the encampment, making its inhabitants momentarily stop their fleshy indulgences until their brains caught up with what was happening. They hastily left their tents and grabbed their weapons, still confused as to what was happening.

When they saw a group of cattle approaching them slowly, most were confused, and some even started cheering at the sight of 'fresh food!' but they dared not move yet, as their captain hadn't give the order yet, and he usually executed on the spot whoever that did not follow his orders.

The hulking height of the Beastman Captain almost doubled the size of the apparent leader of the human party, who looked laughably puny in comparison.

"What's the occasion, have someone ordered fresh food?" The enormous beastman roared, looking at the newcomers hungrily. Normally, just the sight of him would have made the human soldiers run in despair – which made chasing them more entertaining – but these didn't even flinch. "Hmmm, sturdy, these ones." He said, studying them, before showing all his fangs in a manic grin. "I will cherish the taste"

"So crass." A woman in the soldiers' group said. She was dressed differently than the rest of the humans, wearing only a loose robe and some sort of silver headgear that completely covered the upper-part of her head, including her eyes, and outfitted in a variety of silvery jewellery. In her hands, some sort of twisted metal stick rested, but it looked different than what the shaman's stave was, so it couldn't be that.

"Bite me, prey. Because I certainly will bite you." Said the beastman, still grinning madly. He loved to see their horror-stricken faces before he killed them, and that was the reason why he still didn't give the order for his men to rip them apart.

This seemed to not affect the woman, however, as she continued talking without a hint of fear. "I will only say this once. You and your kind are not welcome here, leave. Our Lady's mercy had spared you from being eradicated, be smart and follow my warning." She said without any inflexion, truly not caring whether these barbarians did or did not do as told. She had divine protection, she could tell, so her victory was assured even if her escort were to be overwhelmed.

The beasts seemed to find her warning as a hilarious jest, as they laughed uncontrollably at divine command. She should have them executed on the spot, but that wasn't what her Lady wanted of her… for now.

"Ahh, that was a good laugh. What's better than a full belly and a good laugh, right men?" the beastmen cheered at his words, "but I grow tired of you. You came from that flying rock I presume? Well, know this before you become stew and beef. The King himself is coming here to take that rock from you and feast on anyone is in there, together with the rest of his mighty army! But I will be the one to savour your people's blood first." He said, licking his upper row of teeth. "I will  _cherish_  the taste." And he motioned to his men to start the assault.

However, what he expected to happen did not occur, as the group of human soldiers opened ranks and the woman with the strange metal stick sighed. "Very well. Know this is divine punishment." She stated as she drew from the stick like if it were a bow, and a magical glow appeared on the magic item.

In the span of a second, seven rings of yellowish white light appeared around her hand holding the strange bow, as if shielding her from the attacks. "[Holy Smite]" she said on a low voice, but strangely reverberated throughout the forest.

The last thing Aag, the Beastman Captain saw, was a bright light before his body was vaporized instantly alongside many of his men that were close enough to him.

The beastmen assault stopped on its tracks, as they stood there frozen watching the scene in complete disbelief. They didn't have enough time to comprehend what had they witnessed before the human warriors started their attack.

Many of the beastmen fought back, if only on pure instinct – retreat wasn't a thing in beastmen culture, after all – but quickly found themselves outmatched by the humans that they had been hunting for so many years.

While the battle was ongoing, three figures were passing through the encampment, inspecting the prisoners that had been on there. In past sense, as only a single one was still alive, a boy who in the moment his captors went out to see what was going on, break out of his confinement and ran directly towards the inert corpse of a woman and hugged it tightly as he wept.

He couldn't see the three new figures as they were under a spell of invisibility, but still felt that something extremely powerful was nearby, but it wasn't the beastmen.

The three figures were Daith, Drifa and Sera, who were trying to find if resurrection magic still worked as it did before. There were not many bodies in good enough condition to be confident that it'll work, the body in best shape was the one the boy was clinging to, and it still lacked an arm and parts of its viscera.

It was better than a single torso or a lone leg, but it still wasn't optimal. Deciding that they wouldn't lose anything even if it failed, Sera gave Daith the order to try to resurrect the woman.

While the Overlord was preparing the appropriate spell, the boy, between sobs, begged for anyone to give his mother back.

Suddenly something grabbed him and tore the body from his grasp, and before he could protest, the corpse started glowing. He had heard stories about priests being able to resurrect people, but most villagers had told him that those were mere stories and nothing else.

But now, without the presence of a priest, he saw something miraculous happen. His mother's body began healing, as if rejecting all those wounds, and even her arm grew back as if those barbarians hadn't ripped it off and eaten it right in front of him. Astonished, he watched as not a single blemish was left, and his eyes watered even more as he saw her began breathing again.

Whatever force that was keeping him in place dissipated, and he jumped at her again, to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

The woman opened her eyes as if he was suddenly woken from deep sleep, and felt as her son crashed into her, his tears dampening her shirt. However, what her eyes were drawn to was a faint image a little further away of two angels and a figure covered in a black robe, whose only visible feature was a skeletal hand that was pointed towards her. She couldn't think about it much as extreme exhaustion crashed on her mind and she succumbed to sleep.

Meanwhile, the Holy Maiden felt the use of high-grade magic come from one of the tents, and was witness of the miracle when she made her way there. Surely, it must be for some reason that Lord Daith denied the woman her pass to the beyond, and she will respect that.

Approaching the two, she placed a hand on the child's shoulder, to which he turned his head. "It's alright, child. The Guide of the dead decided that it wasn't her time yet. Be at peace, for you will not suffer at the hands of these savages anymore." The mental and physical fatigue catched up to the boy as he heard what she said and he fell unconscious almost instantly.

The next moment, one of her escorts opened the entrance of the tent a tad violently, "Electra-sama!"

She turned around, and even if no one could see her eyes, the soldier felt how she was looking at him to calm down. The soldier straightened in worry, "I'm sorry, Electra-sama, but we can't let our Holy Maiden to wander about without guards, especially on enemy territory." He said hurriedly, before coughing and continuing, "We have finished with the last stragglers, and we haven't seen any prisoners…" and then he noticed the state of the interior of the tent. "Well, that answers that."

The Holy Maiden hummed. "These are the only two survivors." She said as she motioned towards the woman and child "Task someone to take them with us back to the city. Tell the rest to prepare a mass grave for the bodies." She said, before thinking about it. "Say, have we lost anyone?"

"No, ma'am. There have been a few with wounds, but nothing life-threatening. The worse ones are being or have already been healed." The soldier informed her. She nodded and gestured him to get on with his orders, to which he saluted and got to it.

A little distance away, three invisible beings were watching the results of the battle.

"Well, that answers that." Said Sera, referring to the woman that was resurrected. It wasn't anything conclusive, but seeing it work with a local made some of her worries lessen. She didn't know however if it affected like in the game, reducing levels each time one was resurrected, or if it behaved differently.

"Indeed." Said the personification of Death. Drifa simply nodded in agreement, but her eyes were trained on the remains of the of the three was impressed by the beastmen's capabilities, and even if she knew that they weren't anything strong – seeing them being obliterated by a simple [Holy Smite], she couldn't help but think that they were puny, pitiful beings. But they opposed the Goddess' will, and to add insult to injury, it seemed that Almha – her Lady's holy city, no less – was about to be attacked by an 'army' of these barbarians, and so, they deserved no mercy.

It said much about the normal humans on this world, however, if such weak demi-humans were considered 'strong'. Or were they heteromorphs? Well, they appeared to be weak to divine magic, so it could be.

Seeing that there was nothing else to do there, the three 'godly' beings teleported out, as they had more important matters to attend to elsewhere.

* * *

Scene change: Heavenscrown Castle, Throne Room.

In an exquisitely decorated throne made of gold and dragon ivory, the Hero-King of the Celestial City sat while reading a document his chamberlain brought him, particularly concerning the Draconic Kingdom – specifically that their Queen would be ready to host an envoy within a day. In normal circumstances it wouldn't be a problem, but not fifteen minutes before the Holy Maiden had informed him that apparently a beastman army was making its way towards his city with the intention of desecrating it. He couldn't leave when a threat loomed on the horizon; certainly not when said army's size was not determined – they may have not been very strong individually, at least the ones who clashed with his people, but what if their numbers were so large that they could offset that? He was the greatest fighter in this city bar the divine themselves; he needed to stay back to make sure he did his best to defend it.

Which meant having to pick a representative who was a good at diplomacy – preferably one who wouldn't be missed on the battlefield. Two of his Generals were good diplomats, but as their title indicated, they would be needed on the field. The other three were so bad at statecraft that it would be better to send a golem instead, so they wouldn't even be considered on normal circumstances.

Important figures of the Faith were also out – the Holy Maiden would also assist in combat, and the clergymen would be needed to tend to the wounded. Also, it wouldn't be the best of ideas to have the Inquisitor as a diplomatic envoy, considering his job. As he was contemplating on who to send, a woman entered the room, walking slowly but steadily, gracefulness in her every move. She was clothed on fine academic garb, a pair of glasses adorned her face, hovering over her deep amethyst-coloured eyes.

"My King, let me go in your stead." She calmly said as she continued approaching.

This was Historia, the Head Librarian and one of the most powerful beings this side of divinity. It was a strange sight encountering her outside the Great Library, and it was even stranger to hear her asking to go  _away_  from it. The woman was the very definition of bookworm – it is said that she had read every page of every book within the walls of the Great Library, and so having the deepest understanding to their Lady's mind.

Indeed, for such a feat, many consider her closer to the Goddess than Kainen himself.

The King didn't bother to mask his surprise, "I wouldn't have thought that I would see the day that I'd hear you volunteering to leave the Library. I'd whether the world's going to end, but it has already done so twice." He said, turning his head slightly to the side as his brows twitched denoting his perplexity.

"It is a rather simple matter, Kainen. I know that even if I am not in the Library, no one would dare to do anything to our Lady's sacred scripts. And in the off chance these beastmen break their way here, they would have to pass through  _you_  first. If they do, I don't think I would fare any better." She said, before her serious expression morphed to one of delight, "And I am  _greatly_  interested on this new world. Especially their books, no matter which kind." She finished as a trail of drool ran down the side of her mouth.

The king arched a brow at her, making her realize she was making an unsightly expression – to which she cleaned her face and coughed, and then raised her brow in kind. "What? You have people hearing for you, I have people hearing for me. Information flows, you should expect such a thing happening."

Kainen sighed, quickly deliberating in his mind before reaching the conclusion that yes; she was one of the best candidates to be a diplomat. If she could restrain her book-lust, that is, but she was a professional. Most of the time.

He nodded in the affirmative. "Very well. You'll have to leave in a few hours, the Dragon Queen expects an ambassador before tomorrow. Will you take any bodyguards? If so, I ask you to not take too many, we don't know whether we will need the manpower."

The Head Librarian smiled mysteriously, but didn't say anything more. She nodded politely before taking her leave, going to her chambers to prepare for the journey. The city of Arxtu was a fair distance away, but by flying there she could reach it within two hours.

* * *

Scene change

Having such a massive lack on information about the world was getting heavier and heavier on Sera's mind. She knew little beyond their immediate neighbours, and even then, there was much that was unknown. Going by what she had seen, it appeared that the average inhabitant was much, much weaker than her, and even than NPCs around level thirty.

But there was nothing that said that there couldn't also be something out there that posed a threat to Almha, and so her anxiety grew. Barely, if at all; back when she was a simple author he had experienced much more anxiety over much more mundane things than she does now. If it were to be a more appropriate word, uneasiness would be a better choice, maybe.

They might now find out more about the Draconic Kingdom and maybe even possibly about some other nations out there, but by heavily altered channels such as politics and she knew they couldn't take it at face value. Mix in with the populace would be the best way to gain information, even if it often was distorted when passing from mouth to mouth. The best course of action that she could think of, however, is by abusing invisibility and try to gather information that way.

There are mercenary NPCs that fitted that classification down to a T, but summoning them costs gold, and she still doesn't know if she can get it as easily as back in the game. And she isn't even sure they would be loyal at all, it could be just a massive waste.

What she decided to at the end was to go to undercover alongside Drifa, try to learn as much as she could, find out about the rest of the world. Find out if there are similarities with YGGDRASIL or the real world that may indicate the presence of players, present or past.

The Draconic Kingdom, while maybe a good place to start at first glance – since it's the only nation they are in the know of – would not do, however. Given that a 'new nation' has come in contact with them, unknown travellers would be easy to link with Almha, even without proof.

But the problem that they know not about the rest of the world beyond the location of a single city and an abandoned village, so where to start would be difficult to decide.

The beastmen didn't have any way to detect them under invisibility, but it could be different with the human nations, if there is one besides the Draconic Kingdom. Their knights in Arxtu hadn't heard much about the world either, as they were being kept from getting in contact with the commoners.

That was where a [Message] from the Holy Maiden reached her, in a sort of prayer. Apparently, the expedition had brought back the woman Daith had successfully resurrected, alongside a kid… and then it hit her, they have a perfectly good source of information right here, on Almha! It may be not much, as is only a single peasant, but it was at least something without coming off as suspicious somewhere a player might be.

Then there was the matter of players, and what to do about them… if they are not hostile, they might even be worth allying with depending on the circumstances.

She snapped out of her thoughts and gave the Holy Maiden the task to pry information out of their guests about the world. She gave her permission to explain their current situation to the woman if it was deemed necessary; maybe telling about the whole world-hopping may help to loosen lips.

It's not like they would let them leave anyway.

* * *

Evnie felt as someone tried to gently wake her up, probably some servant under the orders of her mother. She should get up and prepare for the day, but her bed felt  _so_  comfortable today, that she didn't want to yet. It had been so long since she got such a good sleep, her mother will surely understand… she hadn't sleep on a such comfortable bed since… her father… the soldiers…

She took in abruptly as she opened her eyes and sat up, trying to discern her surroundings. She hadn't had that dream since years ago, and she had found a new life and was happy with it. If a little modest, but she couldn't be picky while she had been fleeing for her life.

And in her modest life she certainly would not be able to afford such an expensive bed. Because she was no longer Evnie, she was Tessa, a normal housewife to a hard-working farmer on the village of Svar.

As the world reshaped in her eyes, she could now see that the room she was now in was of unfamiliar architecture and decoration, and exhaled the breath she hadn't noticed she was withholding. Trying to remember how she ended up here, horrible memories began flooding her mind. How the village was attacked, how her neighbours were dragged from their houses screaming, how they were driven like slaves or cattle, how her new happy life crashed down. How her husband was dismembered and gutted right in front of her, and how the monsters ate his corpse while she held her boy tightly on her chest so he wouldn't be able to see.

How the same happened to her not long after.

Is this afterlife?

"I would take it calmly if I were you." She heard a soft, melodic voice say. Turning her head towards the voice, she saw it belonged to the same person who was holding her shoulder, presumably to wake her up.

A woman clothed with priestly looking robes and a curious headgear that covered all her upper head, including her eyes, stood there.

Tessa then remembered the last thing she saw before unconsciousness took her, the image of two angels and the strange skeletal figure. Was this woman one of the angels?

The woman in question smiled, and then gently pulled Tessa so she laid down back on the bed. "No, I am not an angel" she said. Tessa looked at the woman in surprise, but after she thought about it a little, "I said that out loud, didn't I?" the priestess-looking woman nodded.

"As I said, take it slowly. Even if by a servant of our Lady, being resurrected would surely make you feel weak." Tessa squirmed a little, "You don't need to worry, we won't do anything to you, well, beyond giving you a place to recover." But that wasn't what she was concerned with.

"My son, my boy, where is he?" Tessa asked with a growingly sobbing voice, expecting even more bad news.

The priestess-looking woman gestured to a bundle in the bed that was next to her body. Removing the blanket, Tessa saw that her son was placidly sleeping beside her, and she couldn't contain herself as she moved closer to him and pulled him into a hug.

The boy seemed to wake up from this, and when he looked at her, "K-kaa-san?" he timidly asked. She pulled away slightly so she could see his face, and couldn't help it when tears flooded her eyes. And his did too. Both started crying messily with plenty of snot to spare as their new situation permitted it.

The other woman on the room left the mother-son duo cry on peace, as she could understand they needed a moment.

After a moment, Tessa looked back to the woman, still sobbing but trying to calm down. "I… I saw angels a-and a figure clothed in black. B-but I… I know I… died, before. You said something a-about resurrection?" she asked.

The woman nodded, "That's right. I was dispatched to clear the beastmen from our proverbial garden by my Lady, and you were resurrected right in front of my eyes by one of her servants in the beastmen's camp."

"T-then I need to give my thanks to whoever did it." She said, thankful from the bottom of her heart to resurrected her. "But I have to say, I-I don't have the money to pay for it. But if you need payment, I could work for you until the debt is paid…" She was stopped from continuing her ranting by the woman.

"Now, now, take it easy and calm. You are weak right now, so don't worry too much about it." She said before she walked a few paces away to where an exquisitely decorated chair was, and then sat on it. "To answer your first inquiry, praying would be the best way to reach him. Forgive me, I am not aware of your religion, but in ours he is the one who guides the souls of the dead to the Beyond." That explanation seemed to confuse Tessa in more ways than one, but the woman hadn't stopped her speech. "And don't worry about payment. We don't normally resurrect people, but when we do, we don't charge for the service. However… I would like you to answer some questions." The woman requested.

Tessa gulped, but nodded nonetheless. She had learned to not act like a bratty noble long ago, after all, and she understood that her situation depended on the goodwill of these people.

"First of all, does the name Almha sound familiar?" She thought about it for a second, rolling the name on her tongue, but had to shake her head in the negative. "Not that I expected you to. That's the name of where we are now, the Celestial City." She had never heard of it, not even back when she…

"This leaves us to the next topic," the woman said, sighing… "To be frank, we don't know a whole lot about the world, and would like you to tell us everything you know about it"

Tessa blinked, having not expected this turn in the conversation. "Can I ask… how do you not know about the rest of the world?... if it is not too much."

The woman nodded, as if she had anticipated such a question. "Well, it is simple really. We are the remnants of a world that ended. We were just recently transported to yours, and so we know little of it. But as we see, there are also humans such as you in this new world, so we might be able to reach amicable relations with other human nations and similar."

Tessa felt her brows rise to her hairline at the explanation, being something very hard to believe, but at the same time, there was no reason for them to lie to her. And they could be like the Theocracy's Six Gods or the Eight Greed Kings – if the legends were true, those two groups also came from another world.

She had never been a very pious individual, but thought those myths had some truth to it. And now, she had apparently had been resurrected by one of their deities… well, at least they are not malevolent like the Evil Deities were.

"I… I understand. But even if you ask me, I wouldn't know where to start…"

"Then let's start with something simple. Tell me about the religion on this world, are there many, or is there a unified religion?"

Tessa thought about it for a second "The majority of the human nations worship the Four Gods, the exception being the Slane Theocracy and their Six Great Gods… which are the Four Gods plus their God of Life and the God of Death. If we talk about places like the Argland Council State, then I don't know much about their beliefs." She started.

Their talk spanned a few hours, but Electra could gather a good amount of information out of it, that her Lady had asked her for.

In another part of the Celestial City, the so-called Goddess alongside her closest companions was listening in with great care to every word.

"She's no common peasant." Sera said, examining the image of the woman on the screen. "She knows way too much for someone who supposedly stayed all her life in a tiny village with little connexion to the rest of the world. Honestly, I thought that the best we would get were a few names and not much else."

"See how she hesitates for a moment when that nation comes up? I might imagine she is from there. Maybe a criminal, or an expulsed noble. Maybe even a royal." Chimed in Drifa, spotting some details similar to those throughout the conversation.

"This Theocracy might prove to be a problem in the future with their radical beliefs. They are right next to the Draconic Kingdom, so they aren't that far away. But what intrigues me is why they hadn't helped the Draconic Kingdom with the beastmen, after all, if the Draconic Kingdom falls, they would be next on the menu."

"We'll have to be cautious about these Dragon Lords, apparently they are in the same level of their Gods, so we don't really have something to compare them to."

"This 'Adventurer's Guild' sounds more like a mercenary group to me"

"Their coinage is utterly ridiculous."

Sera could confidently say that they gathered good amount of information from this woman. It had been a stroke of pure luck that they happened to resurrect her out of all people, but it paid off handsomely.

The fact that the new worlders used Tier magic was telling evidence that players from YGGDRASIL had passed through these lands, but these so called [Martial Arts] were foreign to Sera, so it  _could_  be coincidence that the Tier magic system that they used was  _identical_  to the one from YGGDRASIL, except for the existence of Tier Zero magic that didn't exist back in the game.

Figures of history like the Six Gods and the Eight Greed Kings could have been players that were transported to this world hundreds of years ago much like Sera had been recently… if so, the possibility of encountering one exists, if any of them still live to this day or if in the future more are transported to this world.

Having a rough understanding on where's what, they came to the decision to pose in as adventurers in either the Re-Estize Kingdom or the Baharuth Empire, as none of the other nations even had the Adventurer's Guild, or in the case of the Draconic Kingdom, their arrival could be easily tracked back to Almha, drawing in too much attention.

Sera was doing this for two reasons: one reason was actually to dig information about the world, and the second was to look the world, and maybe something out there or an adventure will inspire her to write some new stories. She still hadn't written anything besides that thing she did just when she was transported to this world, for fear of her word becoming reality. But it seemed that nothing she wrote after being transported actually influenced the POPs, so she decided she could write peacefully again. She might even find a publisher or a similar agency to one to sell her works to the rest of the world.

Deciding between Re-Estize and Baharuth was difficult. Job prospect-wise, the Kingdom seemed to be a better option, but the Empire offered its own interesting perks. Their Imperial Ministry of Magic being one of them, maybe they'll see something worthwhile if they visited it. The fact that the Empire also had a 'legendary magic caster' who apparently could rival entire armies by himself was also intriguing. Was this Fluder Paradyne an ex-player? Sera couldn't be sure, as his capabilities were unknown by Tessa, who could only say that Paradyne was able to cast 'legendary magic' without specifics. Was it Super-Tier magic? More, or less? It was up in the air.

The downside to the Empire was that because the diligence on the Imperial Army's part, there were not many jobs available for Adventurers, so it was a slowly declining occupation.

Not that payment concerned Sera too much – after all, what examples were rescued from the encampment that they attacked earlier demonstrated that these coins were next to useless to her. They didn't work with magic that required money, and for the most part didn't convert all too well in the Exchange Box. There were several copper and bronze coins, and a single gold one, but none of them exchanged for even a single YGGDRASIL gold coin. She hadn't known if it was because the Exchange Box didn't work anymore, so she tried throwing in a small [Healing Potion] and it converted flawlessly. So the worth of the coins didn't match to even one of YGGDRASIL's coins, or the box couldn't convert New World items into gold – which would be a problem. NPC resurrection cost a hefty sum, maintaining defences do also. In the game, part of the defence's price was automatically paid by the "tax system", but she didn't know if it worked like that anymore.

Throwing in some produce that had been stocked, it exchanged for a few coins, so if anything, she could make her followers to plant more YGGDRASIL crops and use it to convert into gold.

Finally deciding on the Baharuth Empire, since even if working on the Kingdom would result in a more consistent payment, her primary objective was collecting information, and the Empire's capital Arwintar seemed the best candidate to do so. Also, it was slightly closer to Almha than the Kingdom was – not that it mattered much since if something happened she could just teleport back and it would take the same amount of time.

For going undercover, they had to change their attire as to not stand out too much. Changing her clothing for light armour of wyvern-hide and plated with mythril in vital parts, a pair of knee-high boots of similar make, and a circlet also made out of myhril. It was a fairly good outfit for a mid-tier rouge-type like an archer, but it was next to trash for a level one hundred player. The reason why she still had it was because… she didn't like to throw away things, even if they weren't useful and were occupying space needlessly. Sue her. At least she left all those obsolete outfits and weapons on the treasury, because if not she would have maxed out the capacity of her inventory long ago.

Also, she had to leave aside the use of the spellbow as the new worlders apparently didn't have knowledge of it and would be too recognizable. So back to being a regular archer, it seemed, as acting as a magic caster with her current job as Magic Archer would be stupid with the amount of penalties she has when not equipping a spellbow.

Drifa, on her part, changed her outfit to a full plate and a halberd both also made of mythril, as apparently spears were looked down upon as 'weapons of plebeians' that were conscripted, and she had to go without a shield because using a halberd with one was cumbersome at best.

Both of them had data crystals for fast swapping their equipment back to their Divine-class one if the need arose, because if a level one hundred opponent attacked them with their current gear, they might as well go naked.

Making sure everything was in order first, they departed under the cover of the night. They would fly west while also using [Greater Invisibility] as a precaution, until they reached Arxtu and then head north, as the Baharuth Empire's capital was roughly in that direction.

Searing through the sky, seeing the trees rapidly pass under her as her now heightened vision permitted her to, Sera found the journey oddly pleasant. They reached their waypoint in a little less than an hour, watched their surroundings – noting that for a so-called city, Arxtu was fairly small – and then moving northwards.

They had to pass over a small mountainous region, but they had been flying higher than what these mountains reached so it wasn't as it was an obstacle.

Slowly but surely, the war-torn terrain of the Draconic Kingdom gave place to the obviously flourishing one of the Empire, as its limits began with a rather impressive-looking frontier fortress. She could see the roads were well-maintained, groups of soldiers patrolling them at regular intervals, and a few caravans making their way on the late hours of the night.

If she were to describe it with a word, she would say that life for the common populace appeared "peaceful". For all his reputation as the "Bloody Emperor", Jircniv appeared to be concerned with his people's wellbeing. That, or with efficiency, but either suited Sera just fine.

They had to land somewhere in the middle to look at a signpost to make sure which way the Imperial Capital was, they had to continue flying following that road afterwards.

Arriving at Arwintar as the sun was just getting up from the horizon, they overpassed the city and flew a few ways westward before landing. They had to make sure they couldn't be easily traced back to Almha, after all.

They made touchdown on a small clearing, a few hundred metres away from a village at the other side of the woods.

The angels made sure to hide their wings before undoing the invisibility spell they were under. Before starting their way back to the Imperial Capital, Sera turned to Drifa "Remember. I am Diana, no honorifics. You are Athena. We came from the mountains off to the West, from a small city – but we tell that if we are pressured to say so." Sera- no, Diana said as she adjusted the longbow on her back.

Athena nodded, "Yes, Diana-sama"

Diana looked at her again, incredulous. "I just told you, no honorifics." She said, emphasizing the  _no._

The other woman blinked, apparently not realizing that she had done the very thing her Lady had told not to do. "I'm sorry, Diana-san, it's a force of habit." She said, but looked highly uncomfortable while doing so. "I must say though… refer to your Divine self in such an uncouth manner feels heretical to me. Must I ask, is it necessary for me to talk to you this way, my Lady?"

Diana pinched her nose bridge while she sighed. "Yes, D-Athena, it is. Otherwise we might attract the wrong kind of attention. Also, no 'my Lady' while we are undercover."

Athena seemed to cringe at the prospect of not being able to refer to her Lady as proper, but it  _was_ an order given by her Lady. She was conflicted over the matter, but decided to follow the orders. "As you will, my- Diana-san."

Diana's mouth formed a forced smile. At least it's some progress.

They made their way to getting out of the small forest. Once they were on the road, they started to walk towards Arwintar, Diana estimated that they'd get there before noon.

As the Imperial countryside is well known for, they came across no setback besides a small patrol who asked what their destination was.

When reaching the city walls, Diana made an appreciative sound. "Mmh, not bad. I'd guess this city is about half the size of Almha?"

Athena did not seem to share her admiration for the Imperial Capital, however. "It's nothing impressive, compared to my Lady's Holy City." She thought herself so smart, as long as she didn't call 'Diana' her Lady directly, she could refer to her in a third person and not break the rules.

But Diana didn't put up with her cheekiness, and smacked Athena in the back of her head. "You can't make references to Almha in public, or all our preparations would go down the drain if you do." She said, already regretting accepting having the other angel as a companion for the journey.

Athena rubbed the back of her head and bit her lower lip, but nodded in acceptance nonetheless.  _'But, my Lady, isn't that what you just did?'_ was a thought that she dared not to say out loud.

As both of them passed through Arwintar's western gates, Diana could not help but notice the guards and a few pedestrians' gaze on both of them. Were they discovered? Or did they looked suspicious, she thought that these disguises were actually pretty good and wouldn't stand out too much, which did not seem to be the case.

In fact, she was correct, at least mostly. But there were other reasons why the two disguised angels were attracting so much attention.

The citizens of the Imperial Capital were captivated with them. When they saw them enter the city, everyone, no matter age or gender, felt their eyes forcefully pulled towards the sight of the two women. Black hair was rather rare to come by, after all, but they were completely and utterly mesmerized by their beauty, and the grace which they walked.

Their equipment, for those who had a good eye for such a thing, was also  _very_  eye-catching. The one with a low ponytail wore a full plate of some metal different than the common steel most adventurers would wear, and was engraved with golden embellishments, something that only the wealthiest of nobles or merchants would be able to afford without bankrupting themselves, and her weapon, a halberd completely made of metal, with all its ornamentation looked like a national treasure than anything else.

The one with a braid didn't fall short either, her light armour was of such a high quality that it would not be strange to think that it could protect her more than a normal suit of heavy armour, while her enormous bow, not made of wood as common sense would dictate, seemed to have been built for a user far taller and stronger than a normal human, possibly even a weapon of the Gods themselves or the Eight Greed Kings of legend.

Muttered conversations started whenever someone saw them, wondering who they were, where were they going, and the like. Gossip followed them as they tried to find the Adventurer's Guild, a fact that kept Diana on the edge. If they were normal people with normal senses, they would have not noticed most of it, but as they were actually the highest level of angels, their senses were way more refined than a human and they had no problem hearing and understanding such a low voice.

Entering the Guild Hall, however, turned to be even worse. The adventurers in there all turned to the newcomers, and she could feel their eyes scan the both of them with different thoughts in mind.

Curiosity. Suspicion. Greed. Lust. Antipathy. Amusement.

She chose to ignore their gazes.

Approaching a free counter, she coughed to snap the receptionist out of her deep thoughts, "Hello, I am Diana and this is my companion Athena." She said with a smile while gesturing with a hand towards the heavily armoured woman. "We are here to register in the Guild."

The murmurs stopped. All present stared at the two in bafflement, carefully scrutinizing their equipment and the way they moved. The fact that they weren't already registered meant that they weren't battered veterans, so the level of threat of these two women posed automatically lowered in their eyes.

Scorn filled the gazes of most.

These girls were little spoiled princesses that didn't take a no for an answer. Their equipment was probably bought by their doting parents, and they probably can't really fight.

Specifically the girl with the bow, people scoffed when looking at her rather thin-looking arms.  _Yeah, right. She can't even draw that bow with those muscles._  Many amongst the crowd thought.

Were they mocking their profession, thinking it was easy to be an Adventurer? Tch. They'll have another thing coming.

After all, people like them could use that expensive-looking equipment far better than these girls, and besides that, weren't they pretty things?

Maybe they'll pay these girls a visit tonight, let them  _see_  why making fun of a hard profession like theirs was a bad idea.

"Eeh… Uhm… Right. The signup fee cost is five silvers, and the literacy test is another five coppers. There is also a set of rules you have to read and accept before you can sign up." The receptionist said, quickly putting up her professional mask. She was unaccustomed to new people actually signing up however, as not many people did that anymore in the Empire, even less in the Capital. Looking at the very obviously high-born women, "Royals and Imperials have an exchange rate of one to one, so either is fine. Dracos are a little less valuable, seven silver Dracos make five silver Imperials." She had to make sure she didn't anger them, so she announced the exchange rates for the most commonly seen currency within the Empire so they didn't claim that she was ripping them off. She had bad experiences with nobility in the past.

The two women looked at each other, and then the archer grabbed a small bag from a pouch resting at her hips. From the small bag, she withdrew only Dracos, which was… unusual, if anything. They didn't look like nobility from the Draconic Kingdom, as they certainly wouldn't have the resources to spare for anything right now. It must have been that they wanted to use all the Dracos they had before the Draconic Kingdom collapsed and its coin lost any worth left it had.

Diana placed on the counter seven silver Dracos for the signup fee and was about to search for the copper coins, before freezing and looking at the clerk again. "How many copper Dracos would that be?"

The receptionist wanted to avert her eyes from the woman's piercing gaze, but she had a job to do and that wouldn't be professional. "I-It would be nine copper Dracos" the clerk felt her heart crawl up her throat as Diana narrowed her eyes. But the woman simply nodded after a second, withdrawing from the bag said amount of coins and placing them alongside the silvers on the counter. "R-right. Now, you'll have to fill in these documents to be officially registered on our archive." She said as she handed both girls said papers.

The one who had done all the talking, Diana, gracefully accepted the documents, "Thank you" she said with a curt nod. The clerk was dumbstruck, never had she interacted with a noble that was even slightly well-mannered towards commoners.

Diana walked up to a free table, Athena just a step behind her. She was deeply aware that the gazes had multiplied in intensity, but tried her best to ignore them. The same could not be said about her companion, however.

"Athena, stop staring back." She whispered, "we are not here to start a fight with the locals." It was true that she didn't like to interact with people too much, and especially not with people openly hostile to her, but for now she didn't need things escalating senselessly.

Athena snarled equally low, "these infidels should be put on their places, looking at my Lady with such eyes…"

Diana sighed.

When looking at the document she had in front of her… yeah, she couldn't read a speck of it. This script used in the New World was weirder than any language in use back on Earth, and she couldn't distinguish where a character ended and where it started. Completing it would be a real challenge, if not for the existence of a particular item.

The item in question was a special set of glasses that one could obtain from a gacha machine on YGGDRASIL, though it was fairly useless in the game. For an item with less than one percent chance of getting, it was essentially a crappy trophy dedicated to the player's rotten luck. But now on the New World, it proved to be most useful. It was a pair of glasses that gave the user the ability to read any script, an auto-translator if you will.

She didn't think they would work on this world's scripts, but to her surprise when she tried to read sign posts with them, she found that these pair of glasses did indeed work.

Now her test was if it let her write the language. Swiftly taking them out of their highly ornamented case, she put them on and began reading.

The more she read, the less impressed she was with the system. It was full of flaws and  _some people_  had meddled in there, sanctioning what things adventurers could and couldn't do seemingly arbitrarily.

Nevertheless, being an adventurer was one of the fastest ways to gain information without drawing too much attention. Too much  _bad_  attention. She briefly glanced around the room. ' _Well, it seems there is going to be a fair amount of it anyways'_.

Setting her focus back on the paper, she reached for the quill. "Well, here goes nothing."

* * *

After a few setbacks, Diana and Athena exited the Guild Hall sporting new shiny copper tags. Diana was still trying to wrap her head around the tasks her rank could take. After so many years on YGGDRASIL hunting creatures of legend and divine creatures, looking at these 'quests', they were so… mundane.

Eliminate a giant rat infestation. A blacksmith wants someone to deliver some tools to an associate. An old lady wants help looking for a pan!? Really, is that what being a copper plate meant?

They did them anyways – the rats were flicked to death, no need for weapons; the tools were delivered, and the pan was found. The requests for copper plates apparently were even lamer than in other countries because most interesting tasks were dealt with by the Imperial Army.

At the end, they finished the day with a few more coppers and little more. The blacksmith had wanted to buy Athena's armour, but he war refused. Several times. He even offered up to thirty golds, but again, they weren't really concerned with money, so they declined. Plus, the impression was already made, it would be strange if the very next day the one who had been seen wearing a full plate didn't have it anymore.

Entering at an inn that looked acceptable, the interior that awaited them wasn't as good. There were several stains on the floors and walls and furniture, there were very few sources of light, and the place reeked of alcohol.

Being under constant scrutiny for the better half of a day had made it so it was easier for Diana to deal with, but it was by no means easy. There were some of the people that had been on the Guild Hall previously, and the moment the angels entered, the grins of those men grew darkly.

The barkeeper looked at Diana and Athena with delight blatantly plastered on his face, before he saw their copper plates to which he arched his eyebrows in disbelief.

The man could have been easily mistaken for a bear, as he was one of – if not the – tallest locals Diana met. She didn't know how the hell could a bartender maintain so much muscle as he likely didn't go to fight monsters anymore – for what the receptionist at the Guild told them, inns for adventurers were normally ran by former adventurers, and the man had plenty of scars to testify for a lifetime of combat.

"We'll rent a room." Said Diana as she kept her eyes trained on the man, trying her best to not give any mind to the other adventurers.

The man didn't immediately reply, but after a moment he grunted, "'Tis two coppers fa' a common room, ya'll have to get ta know others and ma'be a roommate'll show ya the ropes. Food will cost another five coppers fer ya." He said as he resumed cleaning a mug.

The two women frowned, "Don't you have a private rooms?"

The man didn't stop cleaning, "Ye, I do. But yer new, right? I don't know an' I don't care how ya got yer hands on such a good equipment, but yer faces say 'nough. Believe me when I say that ya'll need the help for other adventurers. The Empire might be calmer than other lands, but when ya encounter a strong monster, if ya don't know what'yer doing, no matter yer equipment, ya end up food for crows."

This didn't faze Diana or her companion, however. "I don't particularly care. I'd prefer a private room. Now, how much is it?"

The innkeeper frowned, but didn't persist. He had seen his fair share of overly confident newbies on their first days as adventurers, and they didn't last for more than a month.

But before he could reply the price, one of the other customers approached the ladies, placing one of his arms over the archer's shoulders. "Now, don't be so harsh sweetheart. Why don't you give us the chance and get to know us first before dismissing us so cruelly?" His apparent comrades sat a little further away, looking at the scene with grins while their eyes glinted dangerously. "You know, me and my mates over there could use your…  _abilities_ \- oompf!" The man couldn't finish talking because Athena separated him from her Lady with what for her was almost a gentle tap, but for anyone else it looked like the man had been rammed with full force by a golem.

"Like I said," Diana had her eyes still on the bartender, "I don't particularly care for forming a party here. I want a private room, two beds if possible. How much?"

The innkeeper looked at her, then at the woman in heavy armour, then at the man that had approached them who was now face-planted in the wall across the room. "It'll be five coppers." He said while holding a key, "But I'm warning ya, even if yer are pretty strong, keeping that arrogance will get ya to an early grave."

Diana grabbed the key, leaving nine copper Dracos on the counter. "Noted."

The man counted the coins and grunted, "It's up the stairs, to the left, third door."

As the two women got to their room, they could hear the innkeeper say, "An' yer going to pay for this mess, Ingur!"

"WHAT?! WHY? I wasn't the one to send myself flying across the room! If you want someone to pay for this, ask that armoured chick!"

"I ain't goin' to risk being punched by some superstrong lady, and yer are still responsible for 'er reaction anyways. If ya want 'er to pay, go talk to 'er about it yerself. I say that about a gold will suffice."

"That's extortion!"

Diana felt the corners of her mouth rise up in amusement.

* * *

Scene change: Draconic Kingdom, city of Arxtu.

"My Queen, it's good to see you in good health." Said the city's governor as Draudillon entered the room.

"Cut off the pleasantries, Dialtaren. We don't have time for those." The Queen said, waving her hand to dismiss the guards from the room. The soldiers saluted, and exited in an orderly fashion, leaving the two important figures alone inside.

"I assume you have read the reports." Stated Draudillon, looking through the window down on to the courtyard where soldiers were having mock battles.

Dialtaren nodded gravely. "Yes, with the apparition of these elves, the beastmen seemed to withdraw most of their forces in our territory. Initial scouts reported that the cities that were occupied are all in a state of complete disrepair and not able to function as cities for the time being. A few castles are in good enough condition to be used as vanguard points, but I don't think that's what you are really concerned, however."

Draudillon shook her head, "The beastmen army appears to be concentrating, and the arrival of the elves, we can't say for sure what is their next objective. The beastmen might assault their city, or they might attack us en force. If such a large army were to assault us, I don't think even the Capital would be able to resist the assault." She sighed, and she turned again to look at the courtyard below. "Say, what's your estimate about those three? Are they really as strong as Ervarius said?"

The governor joined the Queen at the window, "I am not sure of their full capabilities, but they had battled against the entire garrison and even some adventurers who wanted to test their strength against them. They won all battles without breaking a sweat, even when the archer had to fight with swords, he was more dexterous than our own swordmasters, but he said that he preferred to use daggers in melee. They are practically fighting machines."

The Queen scrutinized the foreign knight currently engaged in combat as he quickly overwhelmed his opponent. Mastery over so many weapons should be borderline impossible, with the amount of time required to learn even  _one_ – most couldn't master one weapon in their entire lives, let alone how many weapons these knights fought with. But again, elves are known by legends to be very long-lived, some even saying that their lifespans was comparable with a Dragon, so it is likely that behind those youthful faces they were like Draudillon herself and a couple centuries old. "Say, have any seen that one's face?" she said, referring to the one who still had his helmet on.

"No, my Queen, he had not taken that helmet off ever, not even Commander Marcus had seen him take it off. He also doesn't talk much, but when he does, the soldiers say his voice has the same quality as the other two if slightly older, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume he is also an elf." The governor replied, adjusting the glasses over his eyes.

Suddenly, the one who had been fighting stopped on his tracks and passed a hand through his jaw-long auburn hair, before saying something to his comrades and making his way towards the keep. A few moments later, an assistant gently knocked the door, "Sir, it's the Knight Captain. He says it's important."

Before Dialtaren could say anything, Draudillon ordered to let the elf in. A second later, the door opened and through it the man walked in, with no trace that he had been fighting just a moment before indicating exertion. It was one thing reading about it in a report, and another seeing it in real life. It was intimidating how easily he could fight for hours on end and still come out as the winner against experienced veterans one after the other, without even trying. Draudillon had dismissed the claim that these three men had halted a force of hundreds of beastmen by themselves as mere exaggeration at first, but now she was inclined to believe it.

The Knight Captain looked at the two other people in the room, before dropping his head in signal of courtesy. "Sir Dialtaren, ma'am, forgive me if I interrupted something important. It's that I've been notified that an envoy from my nation is on her way here, she should get here within half an hour. I ask for permission for one of us to go and escort her here."

The governor shifted uncomfortably. "I assume by riding on one of your mounts? Griffins, were they called?"

The elf nodded. "Yes, naturally. She is also flying, so I'll need to meet up with her in the air and I am not able to use levitation magic." This shouldn't even need to be said, as no one short of Fluder Paradyne would be capable of such a feat.

The Dragon Queen was also highly interested in these flying creatures reports described as something similar to a dragon. She had seen a full-blown dragon, a Dragon Lord even, so she would be judge to that statement.

The governor looked at the Queen from the corner of his eyes, in such a way to let her have the final decision. This was not lost on the elf, as he assessed the apparently young-looking woman again. After interacting with members of his household for years, he could discern more or less the age of people that looked young but in actuality weren't. If he was correct, this woman was about as old as his mother.

"Very well, one of you may go with your mount. But if you allow me to ask…" said Draudillon in slight perplexity at the end, "… Why did you refer to me as ma'am?"

"Oh, was I wrong? Forgive me, then, but I thought that you were of one of those long lived races – you feel similar to the other elves I know, you see." He said with an apologetic tone.

"No, you aren't wrong. It's the first time someone who doesn't know who I am deducts the fact that I am older than I look, honestly. But where are my modals, I haven't yet introduced myself; I am Draudillon Oriculus, the Queen of the Draconic Kingdom."

The elf only opened his eyes a little wider to show his surprise but courteously replied in kind, "It is a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. I am Aelfgar of House Eileifr, at your service." He introduced himself, "But if you excuse me, I need to get going."

-Line Break-

When the Knight Captain came back with the ambassador, they expected to see two figures flying on those griffins, not the envoy to fly by herself as if obeying the laws of gravity was optional and the Captain trying to keep up with her while riding his mount, which Draudillon had to admit, was  _fast_.

And the envoy was flying even faster.

When she landed, the envoy didn't look like she had just flew for who knows how long at such a speed. Her clothes, a set of fine academic robes, looked pristine with not a single wrinkle, while her hair was in perfect condition. She was a world-class beauty with long, silky-looking light violet hair tied in a high ponytail and deep amethyst coloured eyes covered by a pair of eyeglasses that looked more like exquisite pieces of art than something to use to see daily.

And, more notoriously, her ears were clearly rounded; in contrast to what the Dragon Queen had expected, the envoy was a human. Or some race that resembled them even more closely than elves do.

The other two knights that had stayed in the city quickly appeared before the woman and saluted. "Historia-sama! It's good to see you! We will be your guards while you stay in here. I must say, I'm surprised to see you here, ma'am."

Historia smiled softly, "It's good to see you too, Captain, you two." she said, nodding each time towards the knights. "Now, I have much to do, so take me to the Governor's Office. I hope I didn't make the Queen wait too much,  _we did say_ " Her voice had turned a bit forceful at that, "that we would send a representative at the Dragon Queen's convenience" her tone betrayed how dumb she thought the person behind that decision was.

A few moments passed before the envoy was in the room with the Queen and the governor, the three seated as they knew they would take a while.

"Greetings, I am Draudillon Oriculus, the Dragon Queen, and sovereign of the nation currently suffering from the beastmen's onslaught."

"And I am Dialtaren Arcarius, Governor of this city in the name of the Queen."

"Greetings for you too, your Highness, governor. I am Historia, the chosen representative by Hero-King Kainen in this occasion. But most importantly, I am the Head Librarian of the Great Library of the Celestial City."

Again, a second passed before Draudillon could process what the other party had said. Then looked at her with bafflement. This person in front of her wasn't a statesman, or a dedicated diplomat, or anything of the sort. No, what this Kainen sent to represent his country was a librarian, and she didn't know how to react to this fact. Should she feel insulted that her country apparently wasn't worth sending an  _actual_  diplomat for negotiations?

The violet-haired woman stopped her thoughts on its tracks, however, "I can see that you don't understand why a person such as I am here on this position right now, and by judging for the few things I know of your country you are very similar with a Kingdom we interacted with in the past. In your society, a position like mine is not really important, isn't it?" She asked, but felt more like it was rhetorical than anything. The Queen nevertheless nodded in the affirmative, to which Historia turned her head to the side and gave a faint smile. "See, that's where we greatly differ. The position of Head Librarian was given to me by our Lady, with the task to protect all books that had ever existed, to protect the knowledge they hold and to not let her followers fall to obscurity. In a way, I am yet another head of the Faith, as within the halls of my Library even scripts written by our Lady herself are housed."

Draudillon narrowed her eyes at her explanation in clear mistrust, "That answers that, but there is something else; I was under the impression your country or city-state or however you want to call it was one of elves, but you are clearly not."

This seemed to throw the other woman off a little – enough for her smile to drop and a small frown appear on her brow. "I don't know where you would draw that conclusion. There are three major races under his Majesty's banner, the elves are just some of his subjects."

The Queen and the governor looked at each other at that information, but Historia couldn't understand why it would be important. The governor coughed before he started speaking, "I am sorry, we seemed to draw the wrong conclusion from looking at the three Knights of yours, and the fact that elves we know of all are very isolationist and don't like strangers very much."

The Librarian moved her head to the other side, "But Sigmund, one of the three, is human." She said, not really following what they were talking about. How could someone conclude that a nation was of elves if one of the soldiers they got to know wasn't even one?

The governor blinked, not recognizing the name before realizing he never got the name of the third knight, who also didn't remove his helmet all the while. "I'm guessing Sigmund is the one with the permanent helmet on?"

Historia thought about it for a moment, before nodding. He had been the only one that met her in the courtyard who had his helmet on. "Yes, it must have been him. Well, I can at least understand now why you thought we were all elves now."

"You said there were three races within your King's domain. The elves are one, and the humans apparently another. Which is the third then?" the Queen interjected, various possible scenarios running through her head.

Historia didn't consider this information – or any she stated – vital, so she answered truthfully "The dwarves, your Majesty. It is a people of similar appearance to a human but rather short in stature and–" but she was interrupted by Draudillon again, "Yes, I know what dwarves are; you need not to explain them to me." This information, for the Draconic Kingdom, no, the world at large, could mean many things. One thing is to have a nation of one race, another of two, but more than that, and they might have the next Argland Council State right on their borders. For one thing is certain for the people of the New Word, and that is that to have a nation with different races coexisting peacefully, they who control said nation had to be overwhelmingly mighty. Like, Dragon Lord-level of strength – the more little details she fished about this Hero-King, Draudillon felt that he was an increasingly bigger threat.

The Dragon Queen gulped, and then with all seriousness she could muster she looked at the Librarian in the eyes. "There is a major piece on this puzzle that I can't seem to figure out. We have been under attack by the beastmen for years now, which live in the very same forest your city located in. A city we didn't know even existed – or could possibly exist – in there, and for the looks of it, neither did the beastmen until your knights fought them off protecting my citizens. And I've been living for far more years than my looks might suggest, as much as it irritates me, I'm old enough to have great-great-grandchildren, and for all those years, never had I heard about a city existing in there. If you were, you would have been assaulted by the beastmen already and one or the other would have come victorious. Please, can you enlighten me why should I believe that your nation even exists?" She asked, partly because she really couldn't decide if she liked the notion of such a powerful new player. In one hand, they also seemed to be in conflict with the beastmen, but on the other, they were a wild card, at best.

Historia appeared to ponder about it for a moment, before starting, "It's rather simple, your Majesty. We aren't native to this world." At Draudillon's dumbfounded look, she continued, "I should inform of our circumstances first, before we can reach any sort of agreement." The Queen motioned for her to proceed. "To be upfront, this is not the first time such a thing has happened. Our original world, to put it simply, ended. For us to escape calamity, our fair Lady built the Celestial City from the wreckage of the dying lands, and with her we were transported to a world where time passed strangely. I honestly can't be certain for how long we were in that world, but it was long enough for it to end, and our Lady did the same as the last time, and our City was transported to the forest where it is now located."

"Who is this Lady you keep talking about?" the governor asked, an expression of deep concern setting on his face. If anything, that "Lady" sounded like the Six Gods and other otherworldly beings that had visited the New World in the past.

"Why, no other than our Goddess, our creator." Historia stated.

A sense of dread grew in the bottom of the stomach of the two. That almost confirmed what they feared. Forget the Argland Council State; they might have the next Eight Greed Kings or Evil Deities right at their gates! No wonder those knights had been outrageously powerful, they might have come from the world of the Gods!

Their conversation turned out to be longer than Draudillon had predicted it to be, and she couldn't simply dismiss what the Librarian told them as fabrications because what she told them was way too complicated to come up with on the spot, and there were not any inconsistencies. But the Dragon Queen couldn't help but feel that Historia was keeping much more information to herself – a fact that, to be honest, scared her greatly.

* * *

The Theocracy's higher echelons were on a state of uproar. Many things had been going south in the last couple of months, and the last days it even got worse. Between the revival of the Catastrophe Dragon Lord as foreseen by the Thousand Mile Astrologer, the stalemate with the Elven Kingdom, the redoubled beastmen invasion on their neighbour the Draconic Kingdom, the disappearance of their entire Sunlight Scripture – as even the Eleventh Seat of the Black Scripture was cut off from being able to observe what happened to them as  _something_  interfered with her vision –, and now, not a nation of elves, but of humans and dwarves too, was transported to the New World alongside their alleged deity, it seemed that bad news kept piling up.

"Are you sure about this? Weren't you fooled by your 'informants'?"

"Yes, I'm sure they wouldn't turn their backs on us. They are very devout people, well, for the most part. The others don't care for much beyond coin, and coin we provide, so their reports aren't likely to be false."

"This is concerning. We are, after all, on times to expect beings of such calibre descend into the world once again. More than two hundred years have passed since the Evil Deities, so lets us hope that scenario isn't going to repeat itself."

"Moreover, the Thousand Mile Astrologer seems to have the same problem she had with the disappearance of the Sunlight Scripture, on the Great Forest of Asdra. There's something impeding her sight to pass a few kilometres into the forest. We should be wary of these newcomers, and maybe let the Clearwater Scripture to take stock of the situation there. Chances are, the Sunlight Scripture was captured by them."

"But the disappearance of the Scripture was on the other side of the continent, how could they have done so in such a short span of time?"

"I say to recon the place, and assassinate their leaders if possible. Or make them fight each other. Or poison their source of food. If they are as strong as the reports claim them to be, we need to weaken them so we are not at risk. We can't let demi-humans have that sort of power over us; we have more than enough with the Dragon Lords."

"What about the humans within their population?"

"That's what they'll get for befriending enemies of humanity, in my eyes."

"I don't know, this Lady of them sound similar to our own Lord Alah Alaf. If they came from the same realm, maybe she is related to Him."

"You are aware that what you are saying is borderline blasphemy, right?"

"I see it as a rightful concern."

"There's also the matter with the newly seen potential god-kin on E-Rantel and Arwintar. In both cases, the women's looks are similar, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that they come from the same lands. We don't know much about them beyond they are abnormally strong and that both groups appeared from the west."

"Do you think these four would grow to be like the Thirteen Heroes of old?"

"It is a possibility that we can't discard."

"Indeed, but that does not mean that we can rest on our laurels. Humanity needs us to keep it safe from the monsters of the world, we can't let ourselves grow placid and be destroyed for it."

"Such are the teachings of the Six."

* * *

After days on end doing menial tasks, Diana was ready to snap. But thankfully, a more interesting task appeared on the board one day when entering the Guild Hall to look for quests.

It was a rather strange one, too. It was by the Imperial Army itself, they wanted any adventurers to help them to 'make a routine cleaning' on the Katze Plains. Asking about it to a receptionist, it appeared that it was something the Imperial Army did regularly around this time of the year in preparation to their yearly skirmishes with their neighbouring country, the Re-Estize Kingdom.

It appeared that after countless battles taking place on the plains, it began crawling up with undead, that if left unchecked would spawn even more undead until they began to be so powerful and numerous as to be a hazard to any living thing.

In the ears of Diana, it sounded more like a proper mission to her. After ranking up to Iron and still not seeing the menial tasks go away, this quest seemed like a god send to keep her annoyed boredom away.

She had seriously considered going to other cities more than once, but when thinking more about it, she always drew the conclusion that the Imperial Capital was her best choice. She had learned plenty of things from the library on the city, but there is so much she could read in the span of a few days. Sure, she could write half of what's there in the same time, but writing and reading, especially something she didn't write, were two very different things.

When accepting the request to join the army on their mission to vanquish the undead, she was warned by the clerk that given their plates, they would be likely be relegated to carry supplies for the most part, and if things started to get ugly, get used as meatshields.

Diana was surprised by such honesty, normally one would not say things like those in such a blunt manner, but it seemed that the receptionist had taken a liking to both of them and really didn't want them to go to the Katze Plains and be potentially slain.

Diana had smiled softly and then said that they weren't going to be killed that easily, and proceeded to accept the quest.

It wasn't until she went out through the door that she realized she put a red flag on her head without noticing. God damn it.

General Natel Inyem Dale Carvain of the Second Legion was in charge of cleaning up the amassed undead on the Katze Plains in preparations for the Empire's yearly battle against the Kingdom.

He had been on charge of one such expedition before which had gone less than optimal, encountering more high-level undead than had been expected, and the number losses had been absolutely unacceptable; they had to rotate his legion out of the battle in favour of the fifth while the second replenished manpower. After such an experience, he took the routine of contracting adventurers to accompany his men. Fighting undead wasn't partaking on human conflicts, and the Adventurer's Guild rules did not impede the Army to ask for adventurers for such a task.

Many adventurers in the Empire, especially on the Imperial Capital, longed for action since there weren't many threats that the Army didn't neutralize, and such there was scarcity of quests of that nature. Guaranteeing that they'll see combat, many veteran adventurers and the most enthusiastic rookies took up the request, bolstering up the number the combatants by about two hundred. He didn't really care for their real combat ability, he puts that quest mostly to take a little of the burnt out of his own men, and the total cost isn't very high as overall it isn't considered very dangerous job, since the adventurers would be travelling with the Emperor's soldiers.

He knew that most of his peers would never consider such an option. They'll think that it would tarnish their reputation. They hadn't lost half a legion to a single undead, one so powerful that Fluder Paradyne himself had to be deployed to deal with.

And the Emperor agreed with Natel on his use of Adventurers, as it would serve to preserve soldiers for their clash with Re-Estize later that year.

He glanced at the ragtag group of mercenaries. Beyond the regular veterans within their ranks, he saw that the majority of them weren't prepared for an encounter with the undead, and if it weren't because they wouldn't be fighting alongside his Legion, they would suffer heavy losses.

But a pair of newbies caught his eyes. Both iron-plated, so nothing exceptional in that regard, but their equipment was of higher grade than the Army's standard, and even than the veteran adventurers'. He recognized Mythril when he saw it, and one of the two women was covered by it in the form of a full-plate suit of armour, but that was not all, her weapon – a highly ornamented halberd – was made of this metal too. Her attire must've cost more than the other adventurers' gear combined, and she was of a measly iron plate? Something was fishy about it.

The other woman was not behind by much in terms of mind-boggling costly equipment – the great bow she carried was also made of Mythril, which raised the question, how the hell could she even draw it? And her set of light armour was made of some material he didn't know of, because it certainly wasn't of common leather.

"If they wanted to pass under the radar, they aren't doing a good job." A man said from Natel's right. He was also looking at the same adventurers, but he was scrutinizing them in a way the General couldn't decipher.

This was Nimble Arc Dale Anoch, one of the Four Imperial Knights.

Natel turned to the Imperial Knight. "You know them?" he asked, moving his head towards the two women. Were they acquaintances with him? That might explain their equipment, as nothing short of an Adamantine ranked adventurer or a very wealthy family could afford such an expense.

"No, I don't have a clue who they are, or where they came from. And I don't like the sound of it." Nimble shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest while doing so. He was one of the few people in the Empire right now that were aware of the apparition of a new nation in the Great Forest of Asdra, and he wondered if those two had come from there. There had been no reports of someone so eye-catching until they appeared out of thin air close to a village not far from Arwintar, but westwards instead of southwards.

If they indeed came from the new Kingdom, that might suggest these newcomers are capable of teleportation magic, something that not even Paradyne was capable of, even if there are records of beings able to do such feats in the past.

The whole thing gave him a bad feeling.

With any sort of luck, he'll see what they're capable of in the expedition, and hopefully they aren't as strong as he feared.

* * *

Marching through the Empire's countryside making use of their well-maintained roads made the journey faster than one could expect when thinking of going all the way towards the Katze Plains from the Imperial Capital on foot.

Adventurers were expected to carry their own weight for the most part, so they had to prepare accordingly. That meant, Diana and Athena had to carry around a bag, if just to keep appearances since using Item Box appeared to not even exist in legends. All in all, it had been a pretty eventless endeavour. March, camp, 'sleep', march again until the landscape started turning dark. At least, the whole thing had given Diana an insight of how the Imperial Army's logistics were dealt with, an interesting bit of information for her next… current story.

There had been plenty of other adventurer groups that had approached them since the both of them had joined in, but unfortunately for these teams, the angel's hearing was acute enough to overhear their schemes before they even spoke with Diana. No one really dared to speak with Athena after a few people had to be un-stuck from walls.

Diana made sure to chastise her, but Athena kept doing it whenever any of those…  _pathetic mortals_  dared to touch her Lady.

So in turn, not many had tried to approach them during the journey, and the few that did weren't or at least didn't appear to be scheming something. There were other groups that weren't called adventurers, but 'workers'. These weren't called adventurers mostly because they weren't affiliated with the Guild, and dedicated to do jobs that the Guild didn't permit. So in essence, workers were true mercenaries.

Not many workers had joined in, and the few that did were in need for any sort of income in the near future.

One such worker group was called 'Foresight', consisting of four people that in contrast stereotype of 'worker' that Diana had overheard from other adventurers, weren't all that crazy for the gold. Not that they didn't care about it, but it was more on the likes of what they wanted or  _needed_  to do with it, rather than the mindless greed of the most notorious workers were known for.

"So… Diana-san, if you don't mind telling me, where do you two come from?" Asked the leader of Foresight, Hekkeran, while the elven-looking woman of the group glared daggers at his back.

"That's private, Hekkeran-san." She quickly replied while hitting Athena on the shoulder with the back of her hand to calm her down. Athena kept glaring at him either way. "I don't go around asking people I just met where they are from, do I? Or why are you a worker, for example."

The swordsman presented his hands as if in mock surrender. "Okay, sorry if it is… you know." He said apologetically, "I just wanted to more or less know what to expect from you. People from the Empire and the Kingdom fight slightly different, you see, and the same thing goes for other nations. I think I am a good judge of character, and I like you two- " He couldn't finish what he was saying as he was hit on the back of his head harshly by the violet-haired elf.

"What are you saying, stupid!?" She shouted at him, anger and frustration clear on her face.

"Ow, I didn't mean it like that, you know it!" Hekkeran protested while he rubbed his abused head.

Diana kept note on the group, as they amused her greatly. They would later be used as the foundation for some characters, she decided.

She found that by speaking the least possible and keeping her ears open, much important information simply fell to her lap.

"But I must say, you being able to keep up while donning that armour is impressive, Athena-san" said Roberdyck, the priest of the group. He was so far one of the few people that hadn't annoyed the Valkyrie after interacting with him for a prolonged time. His calm and kind temperament settled well with Athena, as he was respectful enough to both her and more importantly, her Lady. If it weren't that he was an infidel, she would have commended him for acting appropriate to his profession of priest.

"Hmm, this is nothing." She replied with a single nod. It wasn't as much as she didn't want to talk and more she controlled herself so she don't spill out something she shouldn't, which would disappoint her Lady.

"Soo… Diana-saaan, I can't help but notice your bow." Said Imina, as the archer of the group introduced herself. "I don't mean anything bad! It's that… its craftsmanship looks gorgeous, but at the same time, isn't it a little too hard to draw? I mean, it's the first time I've seen a bow made completely out of metal, plus yours is way bigger than any other I've ever seen. Is it a family relic? Or some treasure you found on a ruin?" her speech became more and more excited. For a self-proclaimed lazy bum, she really got interested whenever bows were concerned.

Diana chuckled while her mouth morphed to a genuine smile, something rare in the last few days. "I guess, you could say that it's like a family heirloom, in a way…" she nodded. "Is it strange? I mean, from where I come from, a longbow like this isn't all that uncommon a sight. I feel like it's easier to use than it looks, want to try?"

Imina's eyes started shining at the opportunity. "Can I? Can I?" her voice carried almost childish glee.

As a reply, Diana simply withdrew her longbow from her back and gave it to Imina, whose hands quivered a little before taking hold of the handle. Immediately after Diana stopped supporting the weapon, the half-elf huffed as she had to put up more strength to lift the bow than she had anticipated. "O-Oh! D-Diana-san, how can y-you carry this thing around so easily?! It weighs a ton!" she said, but didn't motion for the other archer to retrieve her weapon just yet. She had to try firing it, even if it weighted half her own weight! "S-seriously, how strong a-are you?!" that didn't mean she couldn't protest about it.

During their small break, Hekkeran, Roberdyck and Athena went a little ways away to have a mock battle, as the two males kept nagging the Valkyrie about it. Arche had stayed with Imina and Diana, her eyes monitored the surroundings and occasionally setting on the ornamented longbow currently on the half-elf's hands, and each time a contemplative look appeared on her face. There appeared to be something more behind the young magic caster, but Diana wasn't going to intrude, nor that she particularly cared either.

"Well? I'm not seeing you trying, Imina-san. I'm only hearing your bellyaching." taunted Diana. She was having fun watching the other archer trying her best to keep the bow steady, but at the same time, she was starting to think that she might overestimated the inhabitants of the New World, as even what she considers essentially trash equipment was seen as powerful relics.

She had based her disguise more or less after the old commander she saw in that village she saved. She thought that he mustn't have been anyone particularly important, maybe strong but not by much. In fact, her gear is only slightly better than the Griffin Knights' that had been almost defeated if not for her interference, so she thought it wouldn't stand too much.

Imina finally achieved to keep the bow steady on her hands, withdrew an arrow from her quiver, and  _pulled_  the string with all her might.

It didn't budge. Not one bit. It felt as if the string was actually a firm steel bar, rather than a twisted string.

"Haa…" She tried again. And again. Her arms quickly became tired, and the muscles all throughout her body started screaming at the exertion. Finally, she gave up, letting the bow fall from her grasp, but Diana was fast enough to snatch from the the air.

Imina inhaled deeply, bending forwards while holding her knees. "You're kidding me… haa… if you say that thing is a bow… haa… then I guess I am a man." She continued wheezing.

"Well, giving how flat you are, you might as well be one!" Hekkeran, who overheard her from his position as a spectator, interjected.

Imina flipped him off, but he wasn't looking at her, his eyes were trained in how Athena was swatting around Roberdyck like if he were a mere child.

Diana grinned at this picture.

When Imina more or less recovered her breath, she motioned Diana to demonstrate the use of that outrageously heavy bow, a challenge Diana eagerly accepted.

It was a funny thing, really. Back in Japan, he hadn't ever even touched a bow, and he didn't know the first thing about archery. But now, it all felt natural. Everything fell in place without conscious input.

Diana raised the longbow, pulled an arrow from her quiver, aimed at a tree, and drew. Imina felt her eyes widen at how Diana's thin arms bent the string that for her felt like a solid chunk of metal like if it was nothing.

Then Diana loosed the arrow. The shot easily broke the sound barrier, making a  _bang_  that was completely unfamiliar to any native, and before anyone could even blink, the arrow had destroyed a complete row of trees.

Arche, who hadn't really been paying much attention to what the others were doing, jumped in surprise at the sound, and her mouth fell open at the sight of complete destruction a  _single arrow_  caused – an expression she shared with Imina.

_Thunk!_ "Pay attention to your adversary, Roderyck-san." And apparently with their priest too.

"See! It wasn't that difficult, wasn't it!" cheerfully said Diana, a face-splitting grin manifesting on her face at their reactions.

It took a second until Imina's brain rebooted. "That's not normal, Diana-san! How strong are you!?"

Hekkeran was the most composed of the four. "Do you need to use a special [Martial Art] to use the bow, I wonder?" he said while his eyes studied the bow, Diana's arms, and the destruction they created when combined. His reasoning was sound, after all, only by using a [Martial Art] do people that are not magic casters create such devastation. Granted, [Martial Arts] are most common with melee weapons, but that didn't mean there weren't any for ranged weapons. It could even have something to do with her Talent, for all he knew. The two foreign beauties hadn't told Foresight much about themselves – not that Hekkeran faulted them, he had done the same.

Diana just smiled mysteriously at him instead of outright answering his question.

"Oi! What happened here!?" A Centurion approached with a dozen soldiers, and started surveying the surroundings, expecting to find monsters or maybe even undead – they were rather close to the Katze Plains already, so it wouldn't be too strange to come across a wandering group of the dead.

But instead there were only six adventurers and no battle ongoing. He directed his glance at Hekkeran, a rather well known leader of a worker group.

Said man waved his hand. "It's nothing, one of our acquaintances here showed us one of her special moves, I'm sorry if it caused a ruckus. It was my fault; I nagged her to show us." He said while dropping his head slightly.

The Centurion looked at Diana who still had her bow on her hand suspiciously, but made no other comment and went back to the camp.

Diana frowned a little while looking at Hekkeran. "You didn't need to do that, you know." She said, dubious of his motives.

The leader of Foresight shrugged and then crossed his arms over his chest. "I know. I just felt like it."

Imina approached him and kicked him in the shin.

"Ow! What gives!?" He yowled, jumping on one foot while holding his leg.

The archer harrumphed and proceeded to ignore him. "Idiot."

Diana found again this scene amusing.

* * *

Hundreds upon hundreds of feet stamped on rhythmic intervals on the forest floor, quickly rendering it almost barren. Howls of both war horns and of the soldiers marching flooded the air, scaring off any wildlife that considered these woods their home. On the sky, a massive island floated, as if gravity meant nothing to it. And on that island, the walls of a massive city could be seen, easily topping any building the beastmen have ever seen. Beyond the walls, the only thing visible of the metropolis was a fortified palace, where people of importance typically reside in, as the horde had found out after razing so many cities.

"It is a more impressive sight than I imagined it to be." A calm, strong and commanding voice said.

"Indeed it is, my lord." One of his most trusted advisers and best generals replied. "But soon, that city will be yours, and its inhabitants will feed our bellies. This will be just the start of your domination!"

"But – there is something that feels off. I have been living on this forest for decades, like you, like most of our brethren. Never have I seen this flying rock in here" Said the Beast King, while keeping his eyes on the floating city from his war tent. "Have any of you?"

All present motioned in the negative.

His adviser started again. "It is no big matter, my liege. We have them surrounded, and they'll run out of supplies sooner or later. If they want to survive, they'll have to chase us off. A task impossible to complete for a weak race like theirs." He said with complete confidence. "They may be many, but as we know, the number of fighters is lesser than their population, and even then, it's impossible for them to win against your grand army."

For indeed, the assembled beastmen currently besieging the floating city count over a hundred thousand, and probably even more. Only the most populated cities get even close to those numbers, and still, not even ten percent of it are able warriors.

Many tribes heeded the call their King made, and so many soldiers were sent to subjugate the prey that had grown too cocky. In the minds of every attacker was the bloodbath that would surely follow, awaiting it with excitement.

To maintain such a great amount of mouths, cattle in great number had to be brought – but enough for a few days, because there was more waiting for them just beyond the walls.

"The Sages will have everything prepared by tomorrow afternoon. Then, warriors in groups of hundreds will be able to pass over the walls, and it will be over."

The Beast King nodded. "Keep bombarding them with the siege engines then. They need the reminders to what they'll become for defying me."

"As you wish, my lord."

"And Urm, did Aag report in? He had been the closest one here, but he has yet to present himself."

"No, my Lord. I haven't heard word of him yet."

The Beast King's jaws clenched. "Then when he does appear, he is to be executed on the spot. I will not tolerate insubordination."

Urm could only lower his head in acceptance. Once upon a time, he, Aag and the Beast King himself had been childhood friends. He doesn't want such a fate to befall on his longtime friend, but he is loyal to his Liege. He will see it done personally.

* * *

"Well, they are more than I have expected." Said Lyn the Azure from atop of the walls. He had been notified of a great number of beastmen advancing towards Almha, but he hadn't expected they could amass such quantity of soldiers. They must've had brought in most of their population to besiege the Celestial City, yet Lyn didn't feel threatened. With his keen eyes he surveyed the beastmen camp, which extends all around Almha for hundreds of metres.

If anything, they seemed even weaker than he expected them to be. The type of weak beings that no matter how many pile up, could never match up with the most powerful warriors on his Lady's domain.

These beastmen were like ants compared with a star like one of the Generals.

As any good strategist could say, the battle is decided before it begins. He could see the amount of inaccurate assumptions the enemy made when they besieged the city.

They made the assumption that Almha would run out of supplies. If they waited until the city started starving out, they'll have to wait until a few more generations are born, and by then the attackers would have been long starved out themselves.

They assumed that measly trebuchets could make on the holy walls, only for the projectiles thrown simply to impact the walls and then fall uselessly into the ground, on their own troops no less. Such stupidity.

And more importantly, they assumed that the defenders couldn't fight back.

"So, this is the live target practice you told us about?" Asked an old man on academic robes. He was a very tall elf, if slightly thin, and sported a trimmed beard and amber eyes. He was one of the Professors on the Arcane University, and one of the few able to use some of the most powerful arcane elemental magics. "I can see why you'll call them that, hmm." He said while stroking his chin. "What about those over there?" he asked, pointing towards a large tent tinted red.

"I don't care much about them, but the Faith insists that if we can, we save as many of them as possible, so they can convert them." Stated plainly the General. "And the King agrees that it would be better to leave some alive, for diplomatic reasons if nothing else." He finished with a shrug.

The warlock hummed. "I see. So anything should be fine as long as nothing too destructive lands near that area. Got it."

"But refrain from doing so for now. I want to see what tricks they have under their sleeves, for example, how do they want to even get to the walls?" ordered the Azure.

"Don't worry too much, General. I won't start anything until you give the order. Now, I think this will be a perfect live experience for my intermediate to advanced students, so if you excuse me, I have a field day to prepare."

"Enthusiastic, isn't he?" asked the woman besides him.

Lyn looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Like you are one to talk." He stated blandly. "You had your hand on the grip of your sword all the while, and your face just screams you want violence."

The redhead didn't deny any of it. "Heh. That obvious?" she said while grinning even wider.

Lyn stared at their enemies again, but nodded. "Indeed."

A [Gate] appeared on the wall close to them in that moment, from which Anrous, the Professor of Support Magics, Historia, the Head Librarian, and a child-looking woman with a group of guards donning foreign crests walked out of.

The Generals stood to attention and saluted, "Lady Historia, it's good to see you. May you introduce us to our guests?" Lyn, the more diplomatic of the two present Generals asked. He looked at the General besides him again, with a look that demanded her to stay silent. They may have the same rank, but he was her ex-teacher, and old habits die hard.

"Of course. Your Majesty Draudillon Oriculus, the Dragon Queen, these are Lyn, the Azure General and Phyra, the Crimson General." The soft voice of the Head Librarian was heard as the parties were introduced.

"It's a pleasure, Your Majesty." Lyn said while extending a hand. He wasn't all that surprised to see an individual as old as the Dragon Queen being stuck in a childish form, because he had seen similar happenings within the elven population. Not that they were many, but they existed.

Draudillon took a moment to inspect her surroundings, apparently dazzled by what her eyes saw. "N-No, the pleasure is all mine." Then she looked out of the walls and her eyes widened to an almost impossible degree. She quickly turned around towards the Generals, and looked outwards again. Her features were highly trained, but a keen eye could discern many emotions passing through her mind, from disbelief, to horror, to bafflement, to despair – and a whole other myriad of mostly negative thoughts.

The Queen and her guards were quickly led towards the city, taking the scenic route. Lyn chuckled at Historia's antics, shook his head once, and got to plan his strategy.

May the Heroes of Strategy smile upon him, just to be safe.

* * *

There had been very heavy casualties on the Kingdom's side in the last skirmish, so the Katze Plains had more undead than speculated, but their overall level was very low. They outnumbered the living forces, but it wasn't that big of a deal for the seasoned warriors and soldiers. Some of the more novice adventurers had to bail out of the fight as they had suffered too many injuries or were too tired, but the total number of casualties was under ten after a good two hours of cleaning up the undead.

What was frightening about a group of walking skeletons wasn't their individual or even group skill, but their ability to create more undead as they concentrated. And more undead meant more  _powerful_ undead being created.

It was a macabre vicious cycle that if left unchecked, could grow until it had the power to wipe out the world.

And such great amount of undead as like they were currently facing put General Natel on his toes. He was surveying the field every so often, looking for any sign of a high-level undead being present. He didn't want to repeat the same tragedy.

Nimble approached him, dark grime clinging on his blade and some parts of his armour, but he looked otherwise fine.

"No sights of a Lich or anything of the sort?" The General asked with a hopeful tone.

The Imperial Knight shook his head on the negative. "No, but there are more undead than I feel comfortable with." He said while swinging his sword, trying to get the dead flesh out of the steel.

Natel turned towards the third cohort, where the fighting was heavier, and chuckled nervously. "Glad I'm not the only one feeling unnerved." He sent an auxiliary cohort earlier to back up the legionaries, but they were still getting pushed back. The men put down one of the dead, and five more appeared on its place – the walking corpses were that numerous.

"So, how are our little mysteries?" he inquired as he looked towards the left flank, where the majority of adventurers and workers were fighting. Giving the undisciplined nature of the mercenaries, their formations were sloppy and many gaps appeared and closed throughout the skirmish – if they were facing a smarter foe, they would have been already surrounded into small pockets and finished off.

"What Centurion Triv reported seemed to be true, after all. The woman's bow causes an explosion each time she shoots it, and files upon files of undead get demolished by it." As he was speaking, another  _boom_  was heard; bones and pieces of highly corroded gear started falling from the sky shortly after. "I wouldn't be surprised if she can seriously injure a Dragon Lord with that bow." Natel nodded, he had been wondering what caused the bone rain – he had his suspicions, but from his position he couldn't really see what caused it. He wouldn't say he was glad that his suspicions were confirmed, because that woman started to terrify him. In fact, the threat she potentially posed was second only to a legendary undead in his mind. He coughed, trying to get his mind back into the field.

"What about the other?" He asked, as the woman wearing full Mythril armour had been considered possibly more dangerous originally.

"I think I saw her in the fray with the other adventurers, but I didn't see anything really eye-catching like the use of a powerful [Martial Art], so I can't really judge her. But if anything, seeing her last this long in battle without taking a break surely means that she has plenty of battle experience." Nimble answered, before turning his horse to the right flank. "I think I saw something in the right flank, I'll be right back."

That did nothing to calm the General's growing anxiety.

_Thunk. Thunk._

Heavy steps started being heard over the sounds of battle, as if a building started walking on its own. From the mist a few hundred metres away from the frontline, the silhouette of a hulking creature could be seen, slowly but surely making its way towards the battle.

Natel felt his blood run cold. He started sweating heavily, his breathing became erratic, and his eyes widened on absolute  _terror._

"S-Sound the horn to fall back! Fall back!" He ordered fearfully.

He had seen a silhouette similar before – the spikes, the distinctive horns, and the  _sheer size_ … it was evident what undead had spawned, ready to rip him and his soldiers to shreds.

Carnage given form was a foe he didn't want even his enemies experience. For what meant behind those thundering steps, was nothing short of it.

The mist in front of it cleared, leaving in plain sight its form. The creature howled at the sight of the living – its antithesis, the beings his very existence was meant to eradicate –, and all living combatants froze. The other undead, however, weren't fazed with the appearance of the incarnation of slaughter, and continued attacking with mindless abandon.

Soldiers, normally trained to deal with such petty creatures, couldn't fight back from the fright that had frozen them in place. More and more experienced soldiers started falling to the dead's swords, making the panic of those who were still alive grow even more at their agonized cries.

Then the horns started sounding.

Instead of the orderly formation the Imperial Army was well known for, the legionaries started running in a stampede, not caring for anything beyond saving their own lives. It was truly a "each man on his own" scenario.

As the formation broke in mass pandemonium, the forces of the dead took advantage of it and continued picking the living one by one.

"Retreat! Retreat!" A Centurion started shouting, waving his hand for his men to follow – not that they needed the order. Suddenly, an enormous undulated sword was sticking all the way through the officer's torso, and the legendary undead twisted his sword to get the body out of it.

The officer stood back up, but as an undead, and started attacking his own comrades – who could only watch in horror as the situation kept crashing down.

The hulking form of the undead howled again.

This was a Death Knight, a creature that not even Fluder Paradyne could defeat on his own.

But before it could unleash any more slaughter, a greenish blur blocked its next swing of its sword, halting it on its tracks. The haft of a halberd fully made of metal defiantly clashed with the Death Knight's flamberge, battling for dominance.

Their momentary saviour was one of the adventurers they had been travelling with, a woman who many had quickly dismissed as her iron-plate was nothing impressive, even if her equipment was.

But now, this very woman was facing on even terms with an undead no mere mortal could even hope to best.

And she didn't just block its attack, but continued battling it with complete confidence on her face. At this sight, many of the until then terrified soldiers found their second wind, and began fighting back the undead that had been killing them off one by one in their mindless retreat. They wouldn't go anywhere close to the battle that looked straight off a tale of legend, but they could still battle the other undead.

Suddenly, another explosion was heard followed by a sharp  _clang_  of an arrow violently clashing with the creature's enormous tower shield, making it lose its footing – an opening the woman with the halberd took full advantage of and swung at the creature's torso with the blade of her weapon, leaving behind a deep gash and making it fly backwards a good ten metres. But it wasn't enough to finish the creature off, as it blocked with its shield the follow up stab and the rest of attacks the woman in the plate armour executed that were too fast for any normal legionary to follow with their eyes.

It was as if an unstoppable force had met with an unmovable object, a really awe inspiring sight.

The legendary undead was on its guard, expertly parrying or blocking the woman's onslaught, until the adventurer did something different than trying to get through its shield. After a swing of her weapon, she used the halberd as a hook and pulled the shield, leaving the creature open, but she couldn't take advantage of because her weapon was being used to keep the shield in place.

But that wasn't what she was planning in the first place. The moment the turtle was opened, another loud  _bang_ was heard, and the next thing they saw was the Death Knight's head being devastated by what must have been an arrow shot by the other woman.

The towering creature stood there for a moment, before falling uselessly to the ground.

The battle was still ongoing around them, but that didn't mean that the soldiers and adventurers that were still there couldn't loudly cheer in clear euphoria as the sight of the legendary creature being slain, redoubling their efforts to fight the rest of the undead.

The General, who had been still paralyzed in place, looked at how the situation resolved with bewilderment, unable to believe what his eyes just saw.

Half an hour later, the deadlands of the Katze Plains were littered with the bodies of the slain undead and warriors alike, painting a truly gruesome picture. The living had turned out victorious, but the Second Legion had lost a full cohort worth of legionaries and the adventurers' and workers' numbers had been reduced by a third.

But considering what sort of enemy they had faced that day, General Natel had considered the casualties within an acceptable range.

He still couldn't believe what his eyes had witnessed, and by the looks of it, neither could the Imperial Knight at his side.

"I think this is even worse than we feared."

"No, I think this is actually better."

* * *

The room was in a comfortable silence. From the slightly opened windows entered the faint light of the morning sun, a few hours away from noon yet, while birds chirped cheerfully and the sounds of pedestrians leisurely walking through the streets outside could be heard.

Suddenly, the wooden door leading to the room was opened, from which a man in priestly garb entered and pointedly watched the woman sitting on a chair with its back to the window.

"Excuse me, Electra-sama" the priest said, then proceeded to motion with his hand towards the hall outside the room. "But it's important." He finished speaking, his eyes indicating the seriousness of whatever he had to inform the Holy Maiden.

Said woman nodded and proceeded to get to her feet gracefully, like every movement she did. "I'll be there in a second."

The man nodded and left the room.

The Holy Maiden turned her head towards the woman sitting on the bed. "I will be right back, Tessa-san."

Tessa closed her eyes while she smiled. "Don't worry about me, I can wait, Electra-sama. I won't go anywhere."

Electra smiled in kind – even if Tessa didn't understand how the Holy Maiden even saw at all – and started walking towards the door. "Just Electra is fine, Tessa-san." She said before stepping out of the room, not giving the woman time to answer only to have the same conversation again.

Tessa only patted her son's head while waiting, smiling at his sleeping face, so innocent-looking, but she knew that he saw things so gruesome at his age already. Her smile fell from her face. She didn't know how he could not have constant nightmares, like she had when she tried to sleep most of the times since being rescued.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind from the thought. Her son was strong. Stronger than her, even, and that's everything that there was to it.

A second later, Electra walked into the room again, but didn't sit on her chair again; instead she approached the bed and stood there. "Remember when I told you they wouldn't get you again?" the Holy Maiden said softly, almost inaudibly.

Tessa took in a deep breath and nodded, not knowing in what direction the conversation was going.

Electra grinned, almost savagely so. "Well, we are going to make sure it will never happen, to you or anyone else for that matter."

Tessa didn't know how to react.

* * *

After the battle, adventurers and workers were free to go back at their own pace if they didn't want to accompany the Second Legion all the way back. The adventurers on the most part took the offer and began the journey to Arwintar by themselves – because they would reach the city faster that way, and the General sent an eagle stating that those who partook in the fighting to be given their according payment.

Workers, in their majority, stayed with the army as they had not an agency like the Adventurers Guild to guarantee them and didn't want to be ripped off.

"You know, you never told us you were also a priest, Athena-san. It surprised me almost as much as how you fought with that monster." Said Roberdyck after he had finished tending to the wounds of the members of his team, and a few other acquaintances he had.

"Yes, she is. However, can I ask you to keep that information to yourselves? Healing magic is highly regulated in the guild after all, I don't want us to get in trouble for it." Interjected Diana, looking accusingly at Athena, who kept her eyes on the floor. She had suffered a minor cut during the fight with the Death Knight, and thoughtlessly used a small healing spell to deal with it. It wasn't anything impressive, but the others recognized it as a "high-level spell for priests". It was of the Second Tier.

Diana thought that she had overestimated them before, and now she realized she had overestimated them even then.

Their keen senses had picked up how these people had reacted to the Death Knight during the fight, calling it a 'Legendary Undead'.

She had almost choked on her saliva at that. True, a Death Knight had a very good defence for its level, but its attack sucked big time. In fact, Athena's wound hadn't even been dealt by the undead, as it wasn't strong enough to even scratch her, but by the arrow that had finished the Death Knight.

She had ordered Athena to hold back when facing the creature to make a spectacle – if they called this low-mid level trash 'Legendary', then they could exploit it to get a rank up. She had at least Orichalcum rank in mind, because then more interesting parts of the city would be open to them. Like, the important section of the Library, or getting to enter the Ministry of Magic – something they hadn't been able to do when they first tried.

"Sure, our mouths are shut. Don't worry about it." Hekkeran said while rubbing his shoulder, where a rusty sword had been lodged not long ago. It happened because he wasn't paying attention, so he didn't protest much about it. It still had hurt like a bitch though, and he hadn't yet gotten used to the ghostly feeling of freshly magic-healed wounds.

"Yes, I understand. It was one reason why I stopped being an adventurer, after all." Added Roberdyck. "Not being able to help even if one had the ability to." He shook his head.

The more she learned of this world, the more disappointed Diana got. Not only because she saw things resembling the honestly nightmarish world she was original to, but also the strength scale.

Asking Arche about magic, for example, she discovered that the amount of people who could cast spells of the Third Tier and up became exponentially less and less. Arche herself could cast only a few Third Tier spells and that made her a formidable magic caster by the standards of this world.

Diana thought back on the first offensive spell she used in this world, [Seeker Bolt], and how she used it to test the beastmen with its measly Sixth Tier. She didn't even expect it to work very well, but when it did, she had thought it was because the beastmen were vulnerable to holy damage.

Apparently, only the famous Court Wizard of the Baharuth Empire was able to cast spells of similar calibre, and after preparing thoroughly with a ritual.

And she could spam them almost endlessly. It certainly helped to put things into perspective.

On their way back to Arwintar, Diana- no, Sera, got a [Message] – again in the form of a prayer, a thing that she still didn't know how to feel about – from the Holy Maiden. Apparently the beastmen had made their move and were sieging  _her_  city.

[Rest assured, child. If it comes to it, I will personally deal with them, and they will know not to attack what's mine.] Keeping in character was something difficult, but after thinking about lines Sera – the character – said in the novels, she could think up rather quickly how to act like she was supposed to. It didn't mean that she liked to act that way – and in fact, she could act like herself without much repercussion – but she was still on an interesting part and needed some more inspiration, which she quickly found she could get easily acting magnanimously like her character would.

After she finishes it, she'll act however. Who knows, she might stumble upon some new interesting development to use as a starting point this way.

Shaking her head to disperse her thoughts – right now she couldn't get lost on her thoughts as taking a blank book from absolute  _nowhere_  and instantly write something was something decidedly not normal, and something she found herself doing without noticing more than once – she looked towards Drifa- Athena, and the Valkyrie understood her look.

Moving her eyes towards the group of workers, Diana excused herself. "Sorry, guys. It's been fun to travel with you, but we part way here. Athena and I have to do something before going to the Imperial Capital." She said as she started walking away, Athena right behind her.

The members of Foresight nodded and waved their hands in different levels of enthusiasm.

"Hmm, I wonder if they would accept an invitation to join us."

"Why, do you want to have those two pretty ladies accompany you so badly, Hekkeran?" Scornfully asked Imina, still haven't forgiven their leader.

"I told you, it's not that!"

"Well, either way it's bad news for you. I saw the looks Athena-san gave Diana-san. If they aren't on a relationship, then at least Athena-san has very strong feelings for Diana-san, so I don't think they would be interested on anyone."

"What? Oh, man…" surprisingly, who said that wasn't Hekkeran, but Roberdyck.

The other three turned at him, their faces with open disbelief. "W-what?" He asked nervously.

Hekkeran and Imina started laughing at their priest, while Arche simply sighed and shook her head on her team's antics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could have I split this thing in chapters? Probably, but I couldn't figure out where, so you get this monstrosity. I reckon this arc may have one or two parts like this.
> 
> If anyone is interested, it's about 45k words per part, more or less.
> 
> Don't take it too seriously either, if anything, this is like the WN and only a draft. Also, fun facts: I tried to ignore this story, but it kept nagging me to write it. Also, the working title for this was the ever so inspired "somethingsomething". And I had a concept like this swimming through my mind since as back as 2014.
> 
> Ehm, Thanks for Reading. Share your thoughts, if you like.
> 
> See ya.


	2. Arc I: A City in the Sky - Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yo peeps. Guess I had enough energy to continue writing this.
> 
> First, I'd like to clarify some things: This thing has basically no editing. There are some parts that could have used a little more work, but I wanted to continue writing without falling into the pit of endless editing. And like I said, this is more of a draft that anything, so criticism and ideas are welcome.
> 
> Also, it is to keep in mind that English isn't my first language, and although I tried my best to keep this written so it could be understood, I'd appreciate if mistakes are pointed out.
> 
> In terms of story and characters, I have changed some things from the original relase, but I'm not going to tell you to go back to read it. Instead, most of it is referenced again in this part, so if there is some inconsistency with what you remember from the first part, it is highly probable that it was on purpose.
> 
> End the author's note already, you lazy shmuck!
> 
> Enjoy.
> 
> Published first on FFnet because I forgot to post it also on this site.

* * *

A [Gate] opened, and from it two of the highest Angels entered the room.

"My Lady, Drifa, it's good to see you two." The incarnation of death said while kneeling. "I trust everything is well?"

Sera and Drifa stood there, already had undone their disguises – their equipment was the normal divine one and they had dissipated the illusions changing the colour of their hair and eyes.

The Goddess reached out to him with one hand. "Yes, Daith. Although we had encountered some setbacks, everything has gone well." She said, but her mind was obviously not really on what she was saying. "Now, rise. We have better things to discuss than mere trivialities."

The Wiseman obeyed, getting on his feet, while Sera sat on her divine seat. Opening the Base Management tab, she looked for anything out of the norm, and found… nothing. Everything was going normally, and not a single hitpoint on the walls was drained.

If it weren't for her earlier adventure to the outside, she would have raised a brow at that – supposedly, the city had been under constant bombardment for a bit under twenty-four hours, but there was no damage to testify for it.

But now it was almost expected, because the general level on the New World was disappointingly low.

Trying to catch a glimpse of the sieging army with the Base menu proved to be a fruitless endeavour, however, as it wasn't designed to show much of the outside of the city to begin with.

Sighing, Sera reached for her inventory and withdrew the [Mirror of Remote Viewing]. She wasn't a fan of using it, because it had its moments when it started showing whatever it liked. Like an almost-broken computer mouse, back when she still used computers.

Inspecting the forces of the beastmen, she found herself even more unimpressed than she had expected.

"…" she blinked. "That's it?" She felt almost insulted that they thought they could try to conquer and pillage  _her city_  with such a pathetic ragtag group of hooligans. True, they were many, way more than the population of Almha itself. But that meant nothing when she realized they were, for the most part, even weaker than the war party she had vaporized with a single spell.

The only thing she could think this so-called army would be good at was at piling bodies until they finally reached the top of the first row of walls.

"And why has not the Hero or his Generals gotten rid of this pest, already?" She asked through gritted teeth. And here she thought that something really bad was going to befall her creation, her  _magnum opus_.

"The Generals are using this opportunity to gain information on the locals, and the Hero-King has invited a foreign ruler to be witness of the power of your children, my Lady. They say that they'll wipe the pest out when the beastmen attempt to assault."

Sera turned pensive at that. She reached again for the Base menu and looked for the redhead King. "Another ruler… Huh, I wonder who is it?" It was likely to be whoever was in charge of the Draconic Kingdom, as the last time she heard, someone was going there as an envoy – and also the closest non-hostile country – but it could also have been the Emperor of the Baharuth Empire, as it wasn't all that far either.

Who was with Kainen was someone who could only be described as a loli, which made Sera blink in surprise. But her attire was rather royal-esque and she donned a crown, so she supposed this was a queen. If it weren't for the serious expression on the queen's childish face, Sera would have looked who the hell had put a child on charge of a country – or married one, for that matter.

Inspecting the foreign queen further, she noted that her eyes weren't normal – they were slitted vertically, like the eyes of a cat, and coloured dark yellow, almost-orange.

"She is no human." Sera said, her voice carried a slightly surprised undertone.

"No, my Lady. This is Queen Draudillon Oriculus of the Draconic Kingdom, and apparently a descendant of a powerful Dragon Lord." Said Daith, stating the information he deemed important.

"A Dragon Lord?" she looked at the Angel of Death, interest seeping into her expression. Given her experience with the humanoid and demi-human races so far, she would reserve judgement on whether or not this 'Dragon Lord' was indeed powerful or if it was only powerful by this world's standards.

She had overhead about mythical and legendary creatures during her time on the Imperial Capital, but they weren't something that she could automatically pin down to YGGDRASIL or some player. Many were very similar to folklore from back on Earth, so some of those stories could have developed independently from the interaction of a player.

Dragons weren't a thing unique to YGGDRASIL, after all, so hearing tales of dragons that could or not exist didn't raise much attention for her. Now, if a Queen from a realm called the Draconic Kingdom claims to be a descendant of a Dragon Lord – maybe draconic royalty? – it was a slightly different matter. Given that demi-humans exist on this world, and heteromorphs like undead also do, then it is not much of a stretch to believe that Dragons do too.

Sera hummed on interest. "So, what does it make her? A dragonoid? A half-dragon? Or something else?" She didn't know all of the races available on YGGDRASIL – and probably only the devs had this knowledge – but she remembered that there weren't all that many dragon-related races, at least discovered by the wider community.

She wondered if this Dragon Lord had also been a player. What surprised her was that, thinking about it, most of the races back on the game were inter-compatible, at the very least with the human race. Did the same thing apply in this world?

But how would she find about it? The few… faster methods of finding out were quickly discarded, spitted upon and continuously and mercilessly stepped on by her unconscious mind, saying that such an inhumane act was reprehensible.

Wait. When did she start caring of people from the outside? She remembered how she didn't feel anything as when seeing those villagers get ripped open, or when she visited the slaughterhouse to revive that woman. But now, her mind started kicking a fuss about not injuring innocents. Something that she had never cared much about, not even back on Earth.

Sure, back then he hadn't gone out of his way to make people suffer, but he also hadn't been a bleeding heart and helped any and every one he could. He had always thought that suffering was part of existence, and made for good plot development besides.

But now, her mind was screaming to go help those innocent who were being butchered right on her doors as she was resting on her diwan. Why? She wasn't sure of the reason. Maybe the angelic innate "good sense of justice" in the form of positive karma started to affect her mind?

That wouldn't do. What if it affected the quality of her work!? Using the New World as an inspiration source would be in jeopardy if she saved every single one due to this newfound empathy-thingy.

Every possible interesting event would result in the Goddess saving the day, and given the power-scale so far, it would even fall in the category of 'A Wizard did it." Which is utterly boring and a big no-no.

Suddenly, Drifa's voice shook her from her thoughts.

"What are you going to do, my Lady?" the Valkyrie asked, but her eyes were still fixated on the mirror that showed the slaughter, her attitude expressing all the disdain she felt towards the demi-humans.

Sera clenched her teeth at the sight, again. " _These aren't even my children."_

Yet she couldn't just ignore their fate anymore, it would keep coming back to nag.

A butcher knife chopped. An arm rolled free.

He had seen plenty of gore and suffering while researching for his works back then. Granted, it wasn't first-hand, but this technically didn't count either, as she was watching it happen through a mirror. And before, he hadn't felt any strong emotion beyond intellectual curiosity at such sights.

And… she realized that these beastmen wanted to do the same thing to her people. She had already known about it, of course. But one thing is knowing, and another is  _understanding._

If her subconscious screamed at her that she should take up arms against those who hurt unknown innocents, then it outright demanded her to eliminate the threat when it came to her children.

But she wasn't rash – well, for the most part, at least she thought so herself – and thought back on it. Given her newfound information about the world, and how a measly Death Knight was considered a 'legendary creature' capable of destroying nations by itself, then she  _objectively_  knew that no humanoid nation would really pose a threat to her creations.

This Beastmen Kingdom would be no different, as they had been on a war with the Draconic Kingdom for a while, so they couldn't be all that much more powerful than the local humans.

Then again, those beastmen outnumbered the NPCs by a wide margin, and last time it happened, she almost lost three 'named' NPCs – those she had created personally. Sure, they weren't the strongest NPCs out there, but if it came down to a slugfest between two armies, she wasn't positive Almha's population would be left unscathed.

_"But… what if…?"_

Amidst her ponderings, a plan began forming. There was still much to discover about this world, and one of such facets was whether YGGDRASIL's restrictions still applied to her and the NPCs. The prospect of being able to level up even beyond the cap was both exciting and terrifying at the same time, because if it was possible, who knows what players that came before her would be like. YGGDRASIL was known for not having a very friendly community, broadly speaking: PK, PKK, and griefing in general were rather widespread, and she wouldn't be surprised that players such as those would break havoc the moment they came into this world.

She hummed while looking at the mirror. The fate of those beastmen was being decided without them even noticing. The only thing they could do was make their fate meet them faster than they would otherwise.

A flash signalling the use of magic appeared on the beastmen's ranks as they began to form.

And so their fates were decided. She stood up from the over-decorated sofa, storing the [Mirror of Remote Viewing] back in her storage. She looked at the two other "divine-like" beings with her, a faint if cruel smile on her face. "We are going to the treasury."

* * *

Diplomacy had been going well enough, thought the Dragon Queen. The Celestial City's – as their residents apparently called their home – ambassador was polite and explained things pertaining their customs and culture, which she or the governor replied with their own. They were neighbours, after all, so being cordial was of utmost importance for the Draconic Kingdom in that moment. The outrageously strong armed forces of the Hero-King also served as a good persuasive point to be in their good graces, even if what Historia had told the Queen – that the three Knights outside weren't all that impressive by the newcomers' standards – a bluff, it still sent chills down Draudillon's spine.

Dismissing three men that in any other nation would be heralded as heroes by virtue of their strength as "not impressive" was a good way to sober up a ruler.

Hopefully, they would remain friendly neighbours and they would leave it at that. Maybe even have a mutual non-aggression pact, and if the stars aligned correctly, a mutually defensive pact.

The Draconic Kingdom would be in highly need of something to guarantee their continued existence after the whole affair with the beastmen, a thing that the more she spoke with the Head Librarian, the more she believed would be dealt with easily.

But she wasn't feeling confident on securing such a deal, as the Draconic Kingdom wouldn't be able to offer much in return. Other countries, like the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy, hadn't made a move against her Kingdom only because the threat the beastmen posed, and the moment they aren't an issue anymore, she could see El-Nix to order his legions to annex the Draconic Kingdom while it was recovering. The Theocracy could also potentially move against her – they weren't all that shy to express their distaste towards her ancestry, after all – but it was less likely as they were already in a war against the Elven Kingdom and they probably didn't want to fight on two fronts.

If the need arose, she could swear vassalage to this Hero King to secure the future of her realm, even if she found such a prospect unsavoury.

There had been a good number of meetings with the other representative throughout the span of several days, which gave enough time for her Prime Minister to catch up to her on Arxtu – as she had left him to deal with all the tedious paperwork in an honest childish retaliation after one of their arguments – to which he chastised her for acting reckless and conducting diplomacy while she had, quote and quote, "not a single tactful bone on her body".

Which in turn started another argument, but this time neither had much heat behind their words, even if what they said was the same things they had said countless times before.

The Dragon Queen sighed. "What do you think about the situation?"

The Prime Minister arched a brow, "That you were impulsive and stupid when coming all the way here to meet with a foreign dignitary. That most certainly didn't paint the Draconic Kingdom in a good light for them. You know you could have let them come to the Capital, right?" As usual, his tone was dry and his every word blunt when speaking to his Queen, at least in private.

Draudillon frowned at him, moving her weight so she rested on a single leg as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Have you read the damn reports? I didn't want those three…" she then nodded towards the wall, referencing to the three knights outside, somewhere on the premises. "…anywhere close to the Capital if possible. Moreso their mounts, if they are capable to throw around high tiered offensive magic like nothing." She shook her head as she scratched her chin nervously. "They might not be hostile right now, but who knows if they turn against us in the first opportunity."

The Prime Minister nodded in acceptance of her logic and concerns. At least she hadn't acted childish with them. That would have complicated things more than necessary. As much useful it was to deal with Crystal Tear and some of the more degenerate generals in domestic affairs, international affairs were a whole different game.

His face darkened. "As for what will follow…" he closed his eyes. He may not be a deeply religious person, but he prayed for the lives of those lost to the onslaught. "We have counted the casualties of the territory we momentarily lost to be at four-hundred thousand civilians… in the more conservative estimates. We lost most of the Third and Sixth armies, and even if we were to merge them they would have few men." He turned his face away, seemingly inspecting the decoration on the wall, but his eyes were unfocused. "Losing so much land during harvesting season means that we are running ever lower on supplies. If my estimates are correct, we can reach the next harvest without having to heavily import food if we ration it strictly to everyone – a thing that neither the nobles nor the populace as a whole would like much. We can't reduce supplies to our armies anymore without having bad consequences."

Draudillon rubbed her face with both hands, dropping into a chair. "So, we are going to deal with a famine in the near future as well." She said as she looked at her open palms, then proceeded to close them into tight fists.

The Prime Minister nodded once. "Not only that, it is one that if dealt with poorly, can deteriorate into civil war."

Both sighed again.

Their next meeting was nearing, and they had tried to come up with ways to maybe appeal to the Celestial City, but nothing they could thought up was convincing even for their own ears.

Moving through the austere corridors and walls of Arxtu's Castle, the both of them reached the room that had been designated for this occasion as where diplomatic talks were made.

At one side of the wooden door, a knight from her country stood guard, while at the other side one of the Griffin Knights did the same.

Both nodded in respect when she approached. "Ma'am."

She ignored them both, as her mind was still on other matters. The Prime Minister, however, did thank the soldiers for their work.

Inside, the ever-beautiful Historia was already waiting for them, casually passing through the pages of an old book that had been given to her. The absolute only thing they had found that could be used as a negotiation tool in their favour with this woman was the use of books – as the first tome that had been given to her made her eyes sparkle so much that they couldn't  _not_ notice. The Head Librarian was many things, and one of them was living up to her position.

After they exchanged pleasantries – as much as it annoyed Draudillon – the meeting formally started.

"I think…" Historia started, taking the reins of the conversation from the start. "That I had not been very fair with you, your Majesty. I have seen and read many things about your Kingdom beyond what you've told me, but I have not done the same for you." The Dragon Queen raised a brow while moving her body to her right side. It was true, after all. For all Draudillon knew, the violet-haired woman might have been bluffing the whole while – as difficult that might be, given the detail which Historia could get into and still don't contradict everything she said previously. "As such, I have asked a friend of mine from the Arcane University, Prof. Anrous, will provide us with a way for you to see for yourself that I have said not a single lie in our meetings." She said while her polite smile not once slipped from her face. "If you accept, of course. I am not forcing you to do so, but merely giving you the option."

Draudillon blinked in disbelief, looked at her Prime Minister – who had done the same – and exchanged a silent conversation. After they apparently had reached a conclusion, she replied. "I am grateful for the offer, but I have some questions first."

"Understandable. Please, state them and I will answer in the best of my capabilities." The Head Librarian said calmly. She clearly expected this outcome.

The Dragon Queen couldn't help but feel like she was dancing on the hands of someone else. But she didn't know who, yet.

"First of all, how? From what you've said, your city lies deep into the forest, a land crawling with the savages, and would likely be a few days worth of travel by normal methods. I don't know much about flying, as it isn't magic much practiced in my country – or anywhere else for the matter. I currently don't have much time to spare, as in any moment a second wave might assault us." And that was something that had been worrying her for the last couple of days while she was here, too. But at least in Arxtu, she was still within her domain.

"Oh, you need not to worry about it, Your Majesty. Anrous is very proficient with teleportation magic. It will be like walking into a room to suddenly find yourself in another part of the world altogether." Historia said while waving her hand at the issue, like many times before. And, like most times, Draudillon couldn't help but feel intimidated. At least she didn't show her stupefaction each time the Librarian talked about something scandalous like that.

The Dragon Queen gulped. "A-and may I ask why didn't you came here through such a method?" It wouldn't be all that much shocking than sailing through the sky and landing like she were a feather, and it wouldn't have wasted time travelling, either.

As much as the thought of someone with the ability of appearing out of thin air absolutely terrified Draudillon, she couldn't understand why Historia wouldn't use such a more efficient method of travel.

"Oh, it's simple really. We had a… disagreement" Historia paused to find a correct word, something she rarely did throughout prior conversations, as she appeared to be highly articulate. "…which forced me to fly all the way here instead."

Like always, she said the truth but not the whole truth, Draudillon noted.

The Queen sighed, deciding not to press the matter further.

"…Right. So, next question. Can I bring along an entourage?" She moved on her seat so her weight was mostly on her left side now. For someone as old as her, she did have plenty of child-like behaviours, as much as it pained her. Acting that way for a prolonged time made her adopt some mannerisms.

"Of course. We do not have any malicious intentions, your Majesty, but I can understand where you come from with this question. We can accommodate on the spot for thirty people, I hope you find such number acceptable."

Well, it was more than what Draudillon had even hoped for. Certainly more than what she had expected.

"Tell me then, what the underlying reason for inviting me now is?" the Queen asked, narrowing her eyes.

Historia's eyes appeared to shine with approval, and her polite smile turned into one more sincere. "The King wants to meet with you, Queen Draudillon. He said that if we are to discuss things, it would be appropriate for both sovereigns to meet face to face."

Sharing a look with her Prime Minister, Draudillon in the end accepted.

There was no much point to asking more questions, and if they really wanted, they could have already kidnapped or killed her. She was under no impressions all the guards in the city could have had a chance against those three knights and much less against their Griffins – heck, not even her Capital would have been able to resist them. Most of the soldiers had been dispatched to the front already, so pretty much all cities only had skeleton garrisons.

The Librarian nodded approvingly. "Excellent! Let me get into contact with him first. We'll be ready when you are, Your Majesty." She said while she adjusted her glasses.

The Queen and Prime Minister rose from their seats and excused themselves. As they left the room, they started discussing between whispers.

"We can't spend so many soldiers – the city will be vulnerable, even more than it already is if we do." Muttered the Queen

"Yet we cannot leave you without an escort. Even if it's for appearance's sake only, and it would certainly serve to deter opportunists." Argued the Prime Minister.

They continued their banter until they reached a compromise of eighteen guards, the Prime Minister, and Draudillon herself.

The Queen grumbled that they were still too many soldiers, but didn't continue arguing.

Governor Dialtaren then chose from between the current city guard the best soldiers to accompany her. They were good, she thought, but they wouldn't pose a threat for the people they would meet.

Going down the stairs that led to the barrack square, to where her guards were waiting for her in formation. There were also the three Griffin Knights and the creatures that defined their position, opposite from the Draconic Kingdom's unit.

As she walked through the courtyard, Commander Marcus shouted at his unit. "Attention!" he had completed his task of evacuating nearby villages, and had been given command of the group of guards that would go with her. He was, after all, a very good commander with good reputation, but sadly age was catching up with him and he could no longer be in the field for long. "Salute!" the ground shook a little as the seventeen soldiers made the same motion in perfect synchronization.

The Head Librarian was off to the side, sitting on the shade of a tree while she was perusing another book. Sensing Draudillon's approach, Historia let the book she was reading fall to her lap. "Everything ready, Your Majesty?"

Draudillon sighed for what felt like the nth time in that day alone, and nodded in confirmation.

Historia then touched her temple with two fingers for a moment, before a black oval ripped the space in the middle of the courtyard, from which an old-looking man of questionable heritage given his features were mostly covered with hair – either from his head or his beard – and donning a dark blue academic robe of very high quality together with a hat typically seen on many wizards.

"Hoo… This place ain't so bad." Said the old man, stroking his long and messy beard as he took in his surroundings. His eyes stopped at the sight of the Head Librarian, and if his face could be seen, those around him would have seen his face of absolute amusement. As it stood, only Historia could read his expression, to which she was decidedly not impressed. "So… How went our little wager? Hmm?" asked the wizened magic caster.

Historia adjusted her glasses in what appeared to be a nervous tick. "You lost. I got here way before what you wagered for; I have the young Eileifr as witness." She said, voice dry and tone annoyed. "Pay up."

The magic caster looked at the knight captain, who nodded in confirmation, and sighed in defeat. Reaching for a pocket in his robe, he extracted from within ten fat coins made of gold and gave them to the Head Librarian.

Draudillon almost choked on her saliva at the sight of a bet being paid in several gold coins. Sure, as a monarch, such sums  _shouldn't_  make her bat much of an eye, but one thing was state affairs and another was a  _bet._

Historia collected the coins with a victorious smirk, before she schooled her face into the polite smile she had all throughout her stay. "Very well. And you should stop with your unsightly demeanours, Anrous. Especially in front of foreign queens."

The old man didn't care much, however. He waved a hand, dismissing such concerns as unimportant. Instead, he continued speaking as if the rest of the people present weren't even there. "So, Historia-chan, when will you accept all of my grandiose self?"

The answer was instantaneous. "Never. I told you many times before, but I am not interested on men so young." She adjusted her glasses again, its crystals reflecting the sunlight in an eerie manner.

The Dragon Queen did choke on her saliva at that.  _"This old sack of bones is 'too young for you'? What?"_

"Oh, my. It seems bad, useless little Anrous has caused a misunderstanding. Again." The Librarian said while glaring at the magic caster, then moved her head to address Draudillon. "I think I should have said so before, but I am a little like you, your Majesty. For reference, I was a good friend of this whelp…" she pointed with her thumb towards the old man "…'s great-great-great-grandmother." She said, placing a palm on her cheek. "Such good times were those, with no wars or ends of the world or puppies desperately seeking affection, only spending time reading books with friends." She finished with a nostalgic tone, before coughing and continuing with what they were in the courtyard for in the first place. "Anyhow, this is how we are going to travel to our marvellous city. Please, follow me." She then shot a look at the old man, who had his shoulders lowered. He nodded and passed through the portal first, followed by the three knights and the Griffins – interestingly enough the rip in space widened for the beasts to be able to pass through without any problem.

At seeing the beasts were no longer present, all the soldiers that would stay behind and few statesmen who were nearby let out a deep breath in relief – those Griffins were highly intimidating for most people who saw them, the Dragon Queen could gather. And she could understand their anxiousness, as even if the eagle-lion beasts didn't match up with the Brightness Dragon Lord, they felt like really powerful beings nonetheless.

Historia stood at the side of the portal, looking at Draudillon patiently. The Queen looked at the Commander to make him move the soldiers – as they were frozen in place. Quickly enough, the group fell into formation, with Draudillon at the head, her Prime Minister at her right and the Commander at her left, and the rest of the soldiers following them in a column three-men wide.

Idly, she wondered if it would have been a good idea to change back to her adult self. She quickly dismissed the idea, as she couldn't just nilly-willy do so without using a good deal of mana, which was better used in other places than her appearance. Her child-like-self had to do, as she used it for her advantage in literally every other context.

Historia joined them at the Queen's right side, in front of the Prime Minister, and motioned them to follow her.

Passing through that blackness was one of the strangest sensations Draudillon had ever experienced, as it felt like she was doing something  _wrong_  to the world, something that she shouldn't. Judging by the noticeably harder footsteps behind her, she wasn't the only one unnerved by it.

What awaited her on the other side wasn't someplace she expected in any scenario. They walked to a stonework walkway that she had to see twice to understand it was on top of the thickest defensive walls she had ever seen – several metres wide, enough for a sizable military unit to fight in without feeling too cramped. The wall bore a myriad of battlements, machicolations, arrow loops, brattices and various other defensive methods all along its construction, with fortified towers every so often.

On the part of the wall she stood on, Draudillon could honestly say that there was more stone than in the entirety of the walls surrounding Arxtu.  _"Maintenance costs must be a nightmare."_ It was out of the question whether the place she walked to was a real nation – no other explanation could possibly make sense. In fact, it didn't make sense, but in another matter. If they are only a city-state, how could they even afford to build such grandiose walls? The divine nature of it, told by Historia, was something Draudillon wanted to dismiss but couldn't.

There were two figures in the same segment of the wall they walked to through the portal. One was a handsome man in his late prime, who had short hair and perfectly trimmed beard and donned a light-coloured surcoat with the depiction of a Griffin over full-body hauberk of exquisite craftsmanship, with a light-blue mantle hanging over his shoulder.

The other was a red-haired woman with flame-coloured eyes, whose face – even if it wasn't as breathtaking as Historia's – would make many a noblewoman seethe in jealousy. She wore a red brigandine with a black-and-silver crest consisting of two wings, highly decorated pauldrons and gauntlets – with a set of similar-looking boots – while a slightly large black spiked mace rested on her hip and a complimentary great shield on her back.

The two military-looking figures turned towards them, and Draudillon noted that they were not surprised to see them. They saluted at the sight of the Head Librarian, clearly suggesting deep respect towards the woman. "Historia-sama, it's good to see you." The man said, after which he directed a look with the woman at his side that Draudillon couldn't decipher. Then, he moved his head to address her and her entourage. "May you introduce us to our guests?"

After the introductions were done – and Draudillon noted that neither seemed surprised by her looks nor her rank – Draudillon looked beyond the wall in wonder.

And she froze.

Around the wall she was in, another wall of similar making stood, if a little lower in height. But that wasn't what disturbed her, no.

It was the sight of a veritable sea of moving forms below, which with her good eyesight she could discern were beastmen. Thousands upon thousands of them, all sieging the city she had been teleported to, with more siege engines she had ever seen in a single place. She looked back at the Generals, wondering  _how_  they could be so calm about the situation, and then back again towards the morbid sight of what appeared to be  _all of the beastman population._

Panic started to seep deep into her mind – in any moment they could be attacked by the horde and she would be in the middle of it. And the Hero King wanted to have a meeting with her meanwhile? Her thoughts turned blank.

"Now, if you will, your Majesty, I will lead you to King Kainen." The Librarian left no room for argument – not that Draudillon could in that moment, her mind turned on autopilot – and guided the group down the walls through an exquisitely if pointlessly so stairway into a small cobblestone-paved street. Or at least what Draudillon thought was cobblestone.

The street leaded to a wider avenue similarly paved; close to a fortress complex even a normal beastman assault would have problems overtaking. Down the same avenue, many great buildings could be seen alongside it, of which four stood out: a temple-looking building but many times the size of any Draudillon had seen, two similar-looking buildings at the other end of the road – which she supposed were the Great Library and the University Historia had talked her about – and an impressive castle-palace hybrid that rested on elevated terrain in what appeared to be the very centre of the city.

Although not as big as the Imperial Palace of the Baharuth Empire, the castle looked like it was easier to defend, from what she could remember from her very few visits to the Imperial Capital.

And speaking of Arwintar, this Celestial City simply blown it off the water. It looked in way better state – and that is saying something –, the buildings were all impeccable-looking, and it appeared that the avenue was a thriving marketplace full of pedestrians moving around. There were so many people in fact, that Draudillon wondered if in total the population amounted to around five normal cities. She wouldn't be surprised if it did.

As they made way towards the Castle, they passed by a great amount of shops going from bakeries and humble-looking clothing stores to more sophisticated boutiques and jewellery stores to blacksmiths whose items in display ranged from good to mind-boggling craftsmanship in Draudillon's eyes.

She felt uneasy. Seeing the wildly different humans, elves and dwarves go about their days without a care in the world that their lifestyles shouldn't even be compatible, and not caring that an enormous force of man-eating beasts were knocking at their gates.

She didn't know whether it was ignorance or confidence. Either scared Draudillon for different reasons.

"How come your people are so indifferent to their situation?" Commander Marcus didn't have the same reservations as her to ask the question. He was a very straightforward man, and didn't go around trying to understand something by only observing. Observation was good, yes, but there are many things that he could not notice, as he said times before.

Their guide didn't stop walking as she answered. "It's simple. There is nothing to worry about. The King's army can deal with that little pest with little problem, and if it comes to it, he alone can change the course of a battle. Plus the divine protection of the Goddess keeps everyone calm, knowing that not even the end of the world can harm us if we follow Her."

They continued on their way, the people around them opening way for them, but Draudillon couldn't tell if it was for her presence or if it was for Historia's.  _"Probably her. She said that she is something akin a head of their faith, after all."_

Reaching the middle-point of the avenue in where it widened even more as to function as a plaza, at her right was the imposing temple and to her left laid the castle.

In front of the Cathedral's doors, a stone statue of a woman about ten men in height stood guard, holding a massive sword which, looking closely, Draudillon noticed was a massive piece of metal. It was not much to the imagination who this statue represented – it was most likely the Goddess these people worshipped, given the great care it was made with, and where it was located. In fact, it was so realistic that it looked like it was going to wake any second and start moving as if it were a normal living being.

Turning left and going up another set of pointlessly decorated stairways, the group soon enough made it to the portcullis and double doors leading to the inside of the Castle.

Decorations and embellishments of any and all kinds overflowed on every place she looked. It wasn't overly done as to result unpleasant to the eyes, but the amount of details was staggering, from the walls to the chandeliers to the floor and the carpeting, everything appeared to have one or another precious metal in their making. Not to mention, there was no flaw in the design of anything – if someone were to tell her that this was the realm of a God, she would be inclined to believe them.  _"In fact, doesn't this count as the realm of their Goddess?"_

Looking back to her subjects, she felt inadequate to be on this place. They seemed to have similar thoughts.

They stopped in front of a wooden door – masterfully created, like the rest of the place – as the Head Librarian turned around to address them again.

"The King is waiting for you beyond this door, your Majesty. For reasons concerning space, you can enter with two guards, plus your advisors. The rest will have to stand outside." Historia said while nodding curtly.

"I understand." Draudillon replied while she looked at the Commander. Said man chose another soldier to go with him and stand guard in the room. She then turned to the Librarian, "Thank you for your services guiding us here, you've been most cordial."

The violet-headed smiled. "Likewise, your Majesty. Now, if you excuse me, I have a position to attend to in the Great Library. There are many new manuscripts I have to traduce and catalogue." Her eyes noticeably gleamed at the thought. "If you have to ask for something, the butlers or the maids will tell you what you want to know. It was good to make acquaintances, Dragon Queen, Prime Minister, Commander." She nodded curtly at each of them before walking away.

Draudillon gulped at being left mostly alone with her entourage in the middle of a foreign King's castle.  _"They really don't think of us as even remotely dangerous."_

Entering the room, she didn't know why she felt relieved at seeing there  _were_  guards stationed there. If they weren't she would have been intimidated by the Hero-King more than she already was.

In an absurdly decorated chair sat a man in his early adulthood, donning fine robes one could expect from royalty except they seemed actually to worth even more, and also had a long red hair that reached to his shoulders which was kept from falling in front of his face thanks to a circlet-style golden crown. He was currently perusing some documents that laid on a desk in front of him, a quill and an ink pot not too far from his hand.

As the delegation entered the room, the King raised his eyes to meet with the newcomers. Draudillon felt something very strange in the back of her mind at the sight of his face, something that she couldn't recognize. His eyes, a burning set of blazing gold irises, felt like they were judging whether her soul was worthy or not. For what, she also did not know. The only thing she could really make note of the King is that he was remarkably similar to the female General she had met not too long before.

"Ah, welcome, Dragon Queen and her retinue. It's good to finally meet you. I am Kainen, the Hero-King and the Chosen Guardian." He said in an impressive deep voice, one which commanded respect. "Let me formally welcome you into my city. There have been some small issues as you may have noticed that required my attention. But no matter, now we have much to discuss." He motioned to the available seats in the room, to which Draudillon chose a grand and comfy-looking sofa.

"I suppose it is not needed to introduce ourselves, is it?" She already knew that the King had been kept up to date somehow, and given how outrageous these people had been, she found herself less and less surprised at their impossible acts.

The King faintly smiled and slightly moved his head to the side, but did not verbally answer.

That was good enough for Draudillon.

"I'm surprised an army of beastmen in a scale never seen before is considered a 'small issue', Kainen-dono." She said, following his game. He could have been less obvious about it.

"Ah, it is one of the objects of today's conversations. But not exactly the existence of the beastmen itself, the main focus is to discuss about the lands after they are dealt with, Draudillon-dono."

A chill like no other before crawled up Draudillon's spine at his words. He was talking of complete and utter annihilation, with absolute certainty.

True, the beastmen were trying to do the very same thing, but they are little more than somewhat intelligent beasts.

She wouldn't feel bad for them, but with such a statement she finally realized.

This man was dangerous.

"For starts, let's decide what will happen with the forest. We'd like to set foothold in this world, for many different reasons. I imagine the immediate area around our city should go without saying."

The Dragon Queen nodded. "Yes, it seems only fair."

"Well, I'll be frank with you. One of our scouts found the remains of a city deep in the forest. We would like to lay claim to it and make use of its remaining infrastructure for our first foothold."

"You can't!" interjected the Commander, visibly distraught at the mention of the abandoned city. He coughed when he noticed what he did, but the King was interested in his reaction.

"Tell me then, why is it such a bad idea?" The King asked with an arched brow while he fondled his chin.

The Commander looked at the Queen and the Prime Minister before answering. "I-It's a tale from times of yore. It is said that once, it was a great and prosperous city and the gateway to the far east kingdoms, but in a single night its population was completely wiped out by a group of legendary undead known as Soul Eaters. To this day, it is said that those Soul Eaters still wander its streets, as no other country has fallen to these monsters since. Going near the place is said to be practically the same as committing suicide." Marcus explained. The other guard with him started shaking on his knees, even if he clearly tried to restrain himself from doing so.

The King's face took a pensive expression. "Hmm… Soul Eaters, you say?" his question wasn't really a question, but contemplation. "Yes, they could be tricky opponents for most of my troops, but with the assistance of the Faith and carefully choosing who goes, we shouldn't have any problem."

Draudillon was so done with this already. "In which case, I will not interfere if you wish to claim the Silent City.  _We_ certainly can't deal with such monsters either way. I suppose you'll also want to lay claim to the territory between the two cities, correct?"

"Yes, that would be right. But we also would like to gain access to the mountains to the north, those which border the Baharuth Empire. Doing so, my realm would be limiting to the eastern border of your country, and I suppose you wouldn't oppose us if we claimed everything east. You'll be left with a sizable part of the forest and plenty of riversides for new villages, and I know you'll need them."

The Queen tried her best not to stiffen her body, a feat she fulfilled with questionable success. She looked at the King in the eyes, as much as she didn't want to, because she needed to keep composure.

"To be perfectly honest, Kainen-dono. You could take the whole forest and I wouldn't be able to do much- who am I kidding, you could take over my entire country and no one would be able to do anything about it. Tell me, why wouldn't you?"

The Hero King's face turned serious, even more so than before. "It is neither simple nor complicated. Objectively speaking, doing such reckless action would alarm the neighbouring nations, which as much as it pains me to say, I have very little information about. There would be social unrest on the conquered cities, and my forces would be spread too thin for my liking. No, I prefer the prospect of having the Draconic Kingdom as a buffer state between us and the rest of the world. Well, at least the known world. The mountains at the north would serve as good deterrent against most hostiles, which leaves the straight between the sea and the lake at the south and the east as unexplored land, and your Kingdom at the west."

"In such case, what makes you think my country wouldn't turn against yours after we recovered?"

The King narrowed his eyes. "Is that a threat?"

Draudillon shook her head. "No, it is simply a hypothetical question, seeing as you seem confident we  _won't_."

Kainen rested his elbows on the wooden table, crossing his hands before his face. "You'll see shortly."

Everyone from the Draconic Kingdom gulped audibly.

"Which takes us to the next subject. There are many – and when I say many, I mean  _many_ – of your citizens just outside the walls of my city being herded and slaughtered like cattle. People who don't have a home to come back, and even if they do, they'll pose a problem in the long term for you and your little issue with supplies." Draudillon inhaled deeply at this information being said, not by her or hers, but by someone who shouldn't even know about it – he  _literally_  appeared in this world less than a month ago, how could he even get that information? She had soldiers guarding the doors when discussing such topics with her Prime Minister, so it couldn't have been by simple spying. The King appeared to have noticed her thoughts, as a small smirk appeared on the corner of his mouth, but he continued speaking nonetheless. "You have very few options. You let them come back to your Kingdom and it'll start all sorts of problems, so you'll have to import food from either my nation or others, but in either case your economy will collapse in very short time. You could not let them come back and deal with a hungry and desperate mob which who knows how it will act. Or, you could leave them under my care. I certainly could use a little boon in population with our projects of establishing a few settlements, and the people would not suffer from hunger and further strife this way."

The Dragon Queen narrowed her eyes. "These are  _my subjects_  we are talking about."

The Hero King schooled his face completely neutral. "No, these people are  _your subjects_  who  _you_  failed to protect, and would be as good as dead already if not for  _my interference._ "

Draudillon could only clench her jaw at that.  _"He… is saying the truth."_

Suddenly, Kainen stood up. "It seems we have to cut this meeting short for now. Ingvar!" he said, motioning to one of his guards in the room. "…escort Draudillon-dono and her entourage to the first wall." He continued, moving his eyes to look at the Dragon Queen. "This is something she'll want to witness. Now, if you excuse me, I have to prepare, and quickly." He finished as he left the room in a hurry. The soldier in question saluted and motioned the people from the Draconic Kingdom to follow him.

* * *

The divine treasury – because there were many 'treasury rooms' within Almha, but none had much beyond an insignificant sum of gold – was the perfect place to test some things that were on Sera's mind at that moment. It was in a separate place from the Hall of Heroes and the Goddess' Room, but in the same 'realm' of mostly white void.

The building itself – if one were to call it that – was a circular structure of Greco-Roman design, clearly in a sorry state of disrepair, and reminiscent to a very certain amphitheatre, but even in its half-destroyed form it was obvious this tower had supposedly been much, much taller. Gigantic arches surrounding slightly smaller statues in their centres – statues which were all thirty metres tall – support other similar arches at their top, which do the same in turn.

It did not possess a ceiling, although it appeared that it once had one, in a time so past that no record could even persist.

The only arch which could be passed through was the entrance to the Treasury proper. Before the enormous double gates that closed off the treasury, stood the only statue that wasn't in one or another state of ruin, and it was similar in design to the one which rested at the entrance of the Grand Cathedral, although this one was made out of bronze-ish alchemic metal alloy instead. And, like its sister statue outside, it was actually a gigantic golem.

The ground around the Treasury was very little before it ended abruptly, like if it were a floating island. It was, in fact, one.

Off in the distance was visible the Goddess' Palace, like the size of one's palm. Between the two laid what was better described as the void. White everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There was no precise point where all light came from in the outside, so there were no shadows.

In case of invaders getting their way here, the metallic golem was to fight them. Compared to its size, it did comparatively little damage, but was also highly resistant to damage and nigh immune to most status effects. To top it off, its cores – because it had many magic cores – weren't even within the body, but hidden within the heads of the ruined statues who surrounded the tower.

The sole job of the golem was to kick invaders off of the edge, and then the 'white void' would have an effect akin to teleportation to the player, transporting them back to the Hall of the Heroes. It was a tactic to bore players, after all, if they defeated a level three-hundred-fifty NPC – the Hero King plus the five Phantasms – then there was very little anything she did could best the invaders. So, what would she resort to? Getting them on a loop of being swatted off a cliff until they eventually bore of it and call it quits. To be even more effective, there was a trap around the whole tower preventing the use of any kind of flying ability, whether magic or racial.

Had this golem cost her pretty penny? Definitively. Was it worth it? Debatable, as her base wasn't a hot spot to attack for other players, so most of her NPCs didn't ever see battle.

But it was a fact that it looked quite badass, in Sera's opinion. The trade-off to such unbalanced NPC is that its effective radius of operation was very reduced, as its magic cores weren't on its body. But that was cleverly offset by the design of the chunk of earth it rested on, so in YGGDRASIL it was fine.

Now in the New World, Sera didn't know whether such restrictions upon the golem still applied. She wasn't about to find out, however, as she wasn't there for that and actually would prefer to leave it where it was.

Opening the oversized double doors, they were led to the only room within the ruined tower, where an enormous – the kind which warranted such an immense structure – amount gold and other kinds of items and accessories were haphazardly thrown into a pile. Sera had designed this room inspired after reading a particular book which featured a particular creature who liked to hoard riches. And lay waste to cities, but that was beyond the point.

While the three were closing into the pile, from between the pile of golden coins appeared a reptilian head. The creature's eyes widened at seeing Sera approaching, then in clear joy he quickly sprinted towards and rammed into her.

His red scales gleamed beautifully in the light which came into the room from the opened door, and his wings and tail fluttered in happiness as he rested his head on her thigh, purring when she petted his head.

This was Grim, the treasurer, and a small dragonling. His existence was more out of flavour than anything else, as having yet another high level NPC in there felt like it was both a waste and pointless.

His background information was very in depth, however afterthought he appeared to be. Between the many things he was, the most important was that he was a kleptomaniac without parallel, which aligns perfectly with both his job and his heritage. Dragons love shiny things, after all. He also, supposedly, knew and protected the truth of arcane fire magic.

"Hi! Goldy!" Grim chirped, pulling away slightly so he could look at her in the eye. Then it changed his expression for one of puppy-eyes. "You bring Grim new things, yes? Right? New, shiny precious things?"

"Grim! Treat our Lady with respect!" Drifa had enough of his demeanour, acting like a spoiled child.

The dragonling looked at the Valkyrie, lifting his head up to appear as if he didn't care what she said, but that didn't work very well as his tail was flat on the ground and his wings glued to his back. "H-Hm! I didn't talk with Silvery!"

Drifa arched a brow and crossed her arms over her chest, unimpressed. When the small dragon continued to be rebellious, she made to grab her spear, to which Grim did an 'Eep' sound and immediately started apologizing.

Sera waved a hand to calm both of them down – after watching the events unfold, of course, as it was amusing – because they had not much time to stay around. "Hello, Grim. Unfortunately no, I do not have anything to give you right now, as I didn't find anything worth bringing here yet." She chuckled a little at his disillusioned expression, and continued. "We are here to extract some items, can you help us to find them?" He appeared about to protest, but after looking at Drifa again, he acquiesced Sera's request.

After drawing out a middle-tier outfit, a couple of rings, some scrolls that weren't stored in the Great Library, and a multitude of other magic items, the group of three – plus the dragonling, as he was curious what was happening – walked out of the Treasury Room and into the small space outside the tower.

Stopping just a few metres from the edge, she motioned Daith and Grim to stay further back while Drifa was to be in front.

There were many things that Sera wanted to experiment with.

Her racial levels in the Angelic race together with her caster classes granted her the ability to summon daily several low-level angels or a handful of mid-tier ones without much in the way of costs. She could also summon higher levelled angels but they had the drawback of costing on top of mana to perform the summoning, the angel also needed to drain levels from her.

Not a great many number of levels, but the ten that were needed to summon the highest possible angel was too expensive for most players to even entertain the idea of summoning it. The same happened with almost all summons types, not many really wanted to have to grind the last ten levels because they used it on a summon. Especially close to the level cap, where just levelling up once was almost a chore, taking up to a complete month of nonstop playing and killing every monster on sight to gain a single level.

Deciding that there were still many unknowns about how much YGGDRASIL's restrictions still applied in the New World, high-end summons had to be put to the side for now.

But still, there were other uncertainties about summons. Back in the game, they despawned after an allotted amount of time. Would the same happen in this world?

There was the thing with the POPs that were affected by outside factors like her own writings, for apparently no reason, and she wanted to try if the same could be done with her summons. There was also the chance that the summoned angels did not heed her orders or even turn against her.

And those were the reasons behind so much carefulness.

Equipping one of the items she withdrew from the treasury, the [Ring of the Archangel] – an item she barely have ever used since the only thing it did better than other rings she had was to strengthen summoned angels, a thing she rarely did back in the game since it just wasn't her playstyle – she prepared to summon a medium-tier angel.

Strong enough for this world, she assumed, but not enough to even be able to damage her if it decided to attack her.

Not that it stopped Drifa from demanding to be on the front to shield her if such a thing were to happen.

Extending one hand, she extracted from her inventory one of the many blank-page books she had stored there, and got to work. Within a minute she had a rather rough but satisfactory backstory for a character she had to think up on the spot. Her left hand moved at extreme speeds over the hovering open book, as if typing on an invisible keyboard, while her right hand was held forward, waiting to cast the summoning spell.

With the freshly finished character background in hand, she tried to think up a way that it might work. Not that it was guaranteed to work someway, maybe it was simply a thing exclusive to the POPs, after all.

She drew a breath.

[Racial Skill: Summon Medium-Tier Angel: Dominion Authority]

White blue light appeared from within a single point some distance away from Sera, quickly growing into a figure of an Angel clothed in odd-looking white armour and mostly covered by its numerous wings. In front of its helm, a glowing magic circle denoting its divine association floated.

Angels and other creatures summoned by Racial Skills were typically stronger than the same creatures summoned by only magic, and at least in YGGDRASIL, didn't despawn until much later than normal summons. The [Ring of the Archangel] that she equipped improved the summons' abilities even further, making this newly summoned [Dominion Authority] almost as strong as the next type of summon, which was quite a feat.

By the standards of the New World, it would have a walk in the park swatting around 'legendary creatures' such as Death Knights like if they were flies.

It still couldn't even scratch her with most of its arsenal, and she was immune to divine magic to begin with, even its [Holy Smite] – its strongest attack – despite being of the Seventh Tier, still wouldn't be able to hurt her.

But the angel did no movement to indicate hostility. In fact, it didn't move at all.

Looking at the Dominion Authority, Sera briefly contemplated what to do. Extending again the palm that she used to summon the angel to it, she ordered it to move five metres to her left.

It did so without protest, and stood there waiting for further instruction, completely docile.

It was then that Sera realized that she had ordered the angel without using her voice, like in the game where she just wrote the commands because it was faster.

Lifting her hand to her face, she observed it fascinated, closing and opening her palm in wonder. Moving her face to the side, she looked at Drifa, who had her full attention on the Dominion Authority, and extended her hand towards her, giving her a command in the same fashion.

Drifa turned her head to her in puzzlement, but followed her orders nonetheless.

 _"Interesting…"_  She hadn't even thought about trying to use the chat system, even if she knew she could still type – somewhat – as she could write like back in the game with no problem.

Turning her attention again towards the Dominion Authority, Sera approached it. She ordered it to kneel in front of her, which it did again without any resistance.

Looking at the character description she had on her left hand. Simply having it in her possession while summoning was apparently not enough to influence the Angel.

Maybe if she were to cast the summoning with the book on her hand, would it be different?

Holding her left hand in front of the Dominion Authority's head, she touched its helm with the book – as it maybe would fusion with it, or something.

Nothing.

Sera nodded at the result, checking off one of the options from her head.

Next, she held the book with the casting hand, but the results were the same. Only a simple, docile angel in its slightly un-proportioned glory – which was a typical design from the devs' part for any heteromorphic and even demi-human races. It was a real testament to the game's freedom to design that players could turn even the most disgusting-looking creatures into a paradigm of beauty. Or, like many would say, waifu – or husbando – material.

This second summoned angel was completely identical to the previous one, both in looks and behaviour. They met the criteria of mindless summons to a T, or at least appeared to.

She only had a single – guaranteed – try left to see if she could somehow create a customized NPC, as summoning Mid-Tier creatures was limited to three a day, after all.

What she tried next was different to the other two times. Instead of having the book in her hands while casting the summoning, she instead left it on the floor and aimed her casting to it.

Similarly as the previous two times, a white blue light appeared within a single point where she aimed. But then that point of light collapsed and integrated the book which it was over, and just after that the angel appeared.

Sera could not contain her excited smile as her eyes gleamed at the sight.

Instead of a figure clad in strange-looking armour and covered by wings, an angel not unlike Sera or Drifa stood in place.

Highly toned body, skin tanned and of above average height, delicate features – but nothing special in comparison with the most detailed NPCs – framed by a rather short pure-white hair, with a pair of piercing eyes of bright, almost electric white eyes, a distinctly female angelic form stood in front of Sera.

With no clothes on.

Well, that was unexpected. In the hypothetical case anything she tried worked, what Sera expected was the Dominion Authority to keep its equipment – as trash as it would been – and that was why she brought with her a more appropriate set of armour and a weapon.

Well, it was not as if she wasn't going to change this angel's equipment either way.

The Dominion Authority seemed to be slightly disorientated for a moment as she held her head, but when she got sight of Sera, she quickly kneeled. "My Lady Creator, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am most grateful for you to spare your words to create this most unworthy one." The angel's head was so low that she almost kissed the ground.

Sera blinked, half intrigued. She hadn't put in the character description such behaviour. She had put in things similar to the rest of the NPCs, but nothing that outright said them to act like  _this_  in front of 'the Goddess', only that they were 'respectful' towards her. Maybe her conception of respectful and the one from the rest of the world were different?

Leaving those thoughts for later, Sera addressed the newly-created angel. "Rise, child. Here, wear this." She said while reaching for her inventory and withdrawing a set of heavy armour somewhat reminiscent of the angelic summons', but more proportioned and with less random protrusions all over it. It was a set Drifa had worn way, way back, but it still was of better quality than a Dominion Authority's armour.

The kneeling angel humbly accepted her Creator's gift, and quickly donned it. "Thank you, my Lady."

Drifa had visibly relaxed at the angel's disposition, and even started nodding at her in appreciation of her demeanour.

"Tell me, child. Do you know the name I bestowed upon you?" Time to test how deeply ingrained the contents of the book were, if at all. Appearance-wise it was mostly spot on – as no matter how good one is with words, one can't fully describe someone as finely as one could design them in YGGDRASIL's character creation – but it was still unknown whether this angel would act as the description said.

"Yes, my Lady. The beautiful name you granted this one was Valkea. And upon this name I swear allegiance on you, and not even death will stop me from doing my duty to you." The answer was, more or less. It appeared that all the facets of personality that she didn't explicitly state were developed according to the rest.

Wait.

This definitively wasn't an YGGDRASIL mechanic, true, but that wasn't what unsettled her. It was actually the confirmation that she could create fully sentient beings with only words and a bit of magic.

Absentmindedly inspecting Valkea's form, Sera was both shaken by this fact and glad that not  _every_  word she writes since she was transported to the New World would automatically transform into a living being.

But the fact stands, and she could not stress it enough. She had the power to bring someone into existence with only thoughts. It was a terrifying prospect, moreso if other players – if they were transported like her – were to find this information. She'll keep it to herself.

"None are to talk about how Valkea was created." She ordered while looking at the seraphim, overlord and dragonling. It was a good thing that where she tried this is a place where it was nigh impossible to get spied upon, and the only witnesses were the most loyal creations she had made. Plus Grim, but it wasn't as he was going to leave the treasury willingly anytime soon, if his personality was anything to go by.

There was the possibility that other players could have discovered or to discover in the future this method of effectively creating new NPCs with almost no cost, but she doubted there were many writing nutjobs like her back in the game, and even less that were there when the game shut it servers down.

_"If being online at the time of the shutdown is even a requisite for… this."_

Shaking away the thought, she addressed the four angels – including Drifa – and gave them orders to follow with haste. Her city was under fire, after all, and she could not let it be just like that.

She needed to show these barbaric creatures why they should have never tried to attack what is hers.

Addressing the seraphim first, "Drifa, you are in charge of these three. You are to command them to deal with the…" she clenched her teeth in vexation "…pests knocking at our doors."

"Yes, my Lady. It shall be done." The silver-headed angel said in agreement.

Sera moved her head to talk to the newly-customized summon. "Valkea, you are to follow Drifa's every command. You'll also have the power to command the other two." The angel hadn't risen from her kneeling position all the while, and at the order, she lowered her head even more. "I understand, my Creator."

"And you, Dominion Authority…" She said while looking at the two hovering passive angels. "…you two are to follow their orders." They didn't make any sign of acknowledgment beyond lowering a little from their position and getting close to Drifa.

She finally turned to the Overlord. "Daith, be a dear and teleport these four to the Hall of Heroes." She said, before adding, "And start preparations to make sure very few are to retreat from here alive. Just enough for them to not die off, but not enough for them to pose a problem for anyone else."

Nodding, "Now go.", she ordered.

In a flash, the five were teleported away, leaving Sera alone with Grim. After a moment of being in deep though, the dragonling approached her and started rubbing his head on her thigh again.

"So… my Lady Goldy," he looked around to make sure Drifa wasn't there, but still addressed her 'properly'. "…is it really true that there are no shiny things outside?" he asked as he purred at her pats.

Sera chuckled a little.

"No, Grim, I haven't seen anything worth bringing to you out there yet. There might be something, though, but I can't say I'm sure."

The dragonling lowered his head in clear disappointment. "Well, Grim is going back to the treasury then. Waiting for new things to be deposited."

When she was left alone, Sera inspected closely both her palms. Extending the right forward again, she tried to cast again.

[Racial Skill: Summon Mid-Tier Angel: Dominion Authority]

…

But nothing happened. It appeared that these specific restrictions still applied, and she didn't know whether to feel relief or not.

Turning her thoughts to what she had discovered, she wondered if the summoned angels would disappear after the allotted time passed, and if the same thing would happen to Valkea.

If it didn't, what would stop her from doing the same with an Empyrean, beyond having to grinding the levels that were used again each time – if the concepts of levels even continued to apply in the New World, which she was still unsure about. Given enough time, she could have a literal army of high level angels at her disposal, and no matter if they didn't quite match up with a player individually, facing several of them at the same time would be suicidal for the vast majority of level one hundred players.

Still, she had to compare the other two Dominion Authority she had summoned with her racial skills to something else to get a picture if summoning worked differently in the New World.

Using her left hand as if typing on an invisible keyboard, she tried to use the command going by only muscle memory.

[Triple Summoning Mid-Tier Angel: Dominion Authority]

The command successfully called forth the angels with normal magic methods, and her mana barely even felt like it was chipped – which, amongst other things in the current situation, was a strange feeling that she didn't quite get used to yet.

Summoning like this without the use of gold coins and contracts significantly shortened the amount of time the summoned creatures were on the field to a measly fifteen minutes.

Further experimenting with 'silent commands', she made the three Dominion Authority angels do various movements, and deemed them to be exactly the same as in YGGDRASIL. Without enemies to aggro them, they stood in place and did nothing else.

"Very well. You three, follow me." She ordered, while an almost wicked smile started forming on her mouth. "We have some furries to deal with."

The three mid-tier angels silently obeyed.

* * *

"I lost count already" Boringly stated the Crimson General as she watched as yet another projectile thrown by the beastmen's trebuchets harmlessly impacted against the first set of walls. "You'd think that they would have noticed already that they are doing jack shit."

They have been 'bombarding' the city for more than a day already, and no matter what they threw, they couldn't even get past the walls. She saw that more than once the savages thrown a carcass between boulders or trunks of trees, yet everything they catapulted was useless as they simply bounced from the walls and did no damage. Well, except of tainting the pristine walls with the red of the carcasses, but that was overall a minor thing.

She was well aware why the invading army would throw dead bodies. To lower morale, and to hopefully start a pandemic from the decaying carcasses within the walls, making the defenders unable to defend.

But for it to be effective, the sieging army had to be able to bypass the walls, otherwise it was just a waste of time.

Of her corps, very few soldiers found the view morale-lowering – and coincidentally, they were amongst the weakest of her soldiers. She had to put them on a very strict training to remind them that if they were to be afraid of something, is to disappoint her or their King, and not from their enemies or what they did.

Master Lyn didn't agree with her training methods, saying that they aren't effective in the long term, but she doesn't have to hear the old sack of bones anymore, as she was no longer his student. And she hadn't been for a long time already.

"They don't strike me as the most intelligent bunch, Phyra." Said old sack of bones replied back, his tone as bored as hers. "I must say, against any other target, such bombardment might have already broken down the walls, but it is our Lady's city we are talking about." He said, trying to find something useful to keep himself from falling asleep from boredom.

As a good part of the forest around Almha had been cut down already by the beastmen, the defenders had a pretty good view of their enemy.

Just seeing the  _sheer amount_  of beastmen ready to be put down, Phyra could barely hold herself from going there and start a good melee. In fact, she could barely hold her battle crazy smile from manifesting on her face.

Her hand was at all moments on the handle of her weapon, [Nova's Fury], as it felt like it was itching to be set free and start crushing bones and tearing flesh.

"Calm yourself. You are a General now, act like one."

She looked at Lyn, annoyed but she knew he was correct. She doesn't know why she accepted the position, being a field officer was so much more fun than having to stay back and coordinate troops. With her position as General, she would only see combat before the King himself only.

She was snapped out of anguish by the sounds of five armoured soldiers approaching where the two generals were.

The five were the Griffin Knights, the smallest of the corps in terms of numbers but very effective nevertheless.

Lyn also turned around to address the soldiers, his eyes setting on the Knight at the front of the group after quickly studying each and every one of them. "Captain, I trust that everything has gone well on your side, since that ridiculous stunt you pulled last time." The edge on his voice was not lost on anyone, but the only one to visibly react was said elf, who smiled nervously as he scratched his cheek.

"Eeh, yes… that. But everything work out at the end, so I say it wasn't that big of a deal."

He was answered with the General's displeased glance, which made the Captain to let out an even more nervous laugh in an attempt to make the ambience feel less oppressive.

But Lyn only turned again to observe the sieging army around the city. "However, I'm surprised that you even were put to such perilous test by fighting these…" he motioned with his head at the beastmen far below "The majority of them don't seem to be even a decent soldier, or are you telling me that you were bested by a bunch of thugs? I don't care how many hundreds there were, I don't think that you should be in any danger facing these alone."

The elf with the cerulean-coloured hair approached the battlements, scrutinizing the surroundings with his miraculous eyesight. "If you excuse me, I don't think the group we faced back at that village was any ragtag group of beastmen, General. If anything, they can only be compared with those who are guarding the important-looking tent." He informed.

The Captain's interest was piqued. "Is that where the enemy leader is?" he asked. "If we know where their head is, why not strike them where it will cripple them?"

Lyn shook his head minutely. "Everything on its time, Captain."

The elven Captain did very obviously not understand, but nodded and did not pursue the topic any longer.

Then a very distinguishable magical shine appeared in dispersed groups of the beastmen, who proceeded to walk through the air as if they were walking up a slope that wasn't there.

Everyone's eyes slightly opened at the sight, and the Azure General hurriedly turned again towards his Knights. "Captain, I want you and the rest to mount and bring those bastards down from the sky. And I want you to do it five seconds ago, move!"

The five saluted and quickly left the scene, almost sprinting towards the location of the Griffin's Nest.

Phyra could no longer contain her battle thirsty smile. "Finally. Time for action, eh?" Her voice was utterly calm, however, clashing with the expression on her face.

The older man did not reply.

* * *

Urm smiled wickedly. The Sages had finished preparations, and now hundreds and hundreds of his men were able to get up those walls to start wreaking havoc. Seeing the display of the highest possible magic the beastmen's casters could do served to further encourage all under the Beast King's banner, and surely to lower the meatbag's morale.

The siege engines had done very little as far as he could see, a fact that annoyed him greatly. But now the confined cattle in their stone walls should be experiencing despair at the sight of the strongest beings walking to them through the sky, completely ignoring their precious walls.

But his confidence was shaken a little when from within the walls, five winged creatures flew and started throwing lightning bolts at his men, who couldn't move fast enough to dodge.

Charred corpses of good beastmen started raining down, its sight making Urm to clench his jaws shut.

He turned towards the bowmen group he had under his command. Beastmen typically used very little the bow, but the ones who did used things very different from what the humans called a bow. For a beastman, human bows might as well were toothpicks. No, the strongest beings used something far superior, capable of shooting very big and heavy arrows with ease.

"Bowmen! Shoot those eagles down!" he ordered. He wasn't going to let those flying chickens to do as they pleased and give them free pass to kill his men.

"But what about the-" Dissent was prohibited. He crushed the weakling's head with his plank of metal.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at the rest of the group. "Any. Objection. With. My. Orders?"

They all straightened right away and did as told, but the eagle-things were too nimble and dodged the volleys without much problem. Some of the arrows hit his own men instead.

Then he noticed that there were preys mounting the eagle-beasts. He didn't know why any self-respecting beast would let prey to use them as mount, but he wasn't going to find out. They fight alongside the humans, they die with the humans.

Soon enough more and more beastmen took up the sky, more than what the five eagle-beasts could handle. It would be a costly victory, but once his men got inside the walls, then it's game over for them.

Just for the beasts these cattle killed, he would personally make sure to taint all of the city's streets red with their blood.

But before any beastman could get past the walls, an all-powerful massive beam of light made an entire column vanish.

Then another.

And another.

Two winged humans and two other winged beings appeared in the sky above the city, and they were the ones responsible for so much losses.

Urm's blood boiled on his veins, and his claws were closed so tightly that he completely destroyed a tree he was resting his hand on.

A soft, melodious voice rung across the field. Somehow, even if its volume wasn't high, everyone could hear what it said.

"You had been given the opportunity to turn away. But you chose to attack our Lady's Holy City, and such an action cannot be left unpunished. Surrender now, and you'll be granted the last chance of mercy. Resist, and be turned to dust."

That didn't go unchallenged by the Beast King, however. His roar could also be heard throughout the surroundings, and even if he had to raise his voice, he could retort so everyone could hear him too.

"HAH! You killed some from my army, and declared yourself already the victor? Have you seen how many more I have? I am no mere ruler. I am the bringer of the new order! The Beastman order! The times of men are done, and I am the one who will be responsible for it! No simpleton winged birdbrains like you can stop me! I have discarded my name, because I have no need of it. I AM THE BEAST KING, THE CONQUEROR OF ALL, AND THE HUMANS BANE!" He pointed forwards with his claw, with his actions renewing the morale of his troops to unseen new levels. "CHARGE, KILL, MAIM, UNTIL NO PREY IS LEFT!"

"HOOOOOO!"

Under a few moments, more winged birdbrains joined with the other four, making them a total of seven. The Beastmen Sages doubled on their efforts to cast their mass levitation magic on more and more combat groups, motivated by their King's speech. All the bowmen groups started to rain death upon the flying defenders without the need of their commander's orders.

Then the defenders' soldiers descended from their walls to meet them in the cleared field. They were outnumbered at least one hundred to one against the beastmen, but the human's formations didn't seem to waver a single bit.

With their focus on the soldiers on the ground, less beastmen took up to the sky and instead rushed to the newly formed defensive lines of the humans in mindless abandon. Not that Urm could blame them, he was one of them.

Closing on the humans, he could almost taste them already, and they made his mouth water significantly. He now understood the pipsqueak's ranting when he informed the King of this founding.

As he raised his enormous metal plank to devastate a file of human soldiers, his attack was however blocked by an enormous black shield.

Looking at his newfound opponent, he saw a human woman clad in full armour, holding the previously mentioned shield and a mace that looked too big on her hands.

"Hey ho, big guy. You are my dancing partner now, I hope you are able to last." Her manic grin would have scared any lesser being, but Urm wasn't one. He met her head on, not holding back.

"I am the great Urm! Commander under the Beast King, and his left hand! NO ONE CAN BEAT ME!" He roared in challenge against his opponent.

Her reply was much more controlled, but still less 'civilized' than what was normal by human standards.

"I am the Crimson General, Phyra of the Searing Flames!"

They interchanged blows faster than any normal being was able to see, both matched in skill and strength, much to Urm's chagrin.

"HA! I SHALL LEAVE YOU ALIVE. FEMALES ARE GREAT PIÑATAS, AFTER ALL, AND YOU WILL BE THE BEST OF THEM ALL!"

"YOU THINK SO, BEAST? THINK AGAIN!"

Her hits, instead of becoming slower and softer as was normal with beings without the stamina of the beastmen, became faster and stronger. Each strike he blocked with his plank left his arm ringing from the exertion, until he could not keep up anymore.

The spiked head of the mace met with his dextrous arm, destroying his bones and ripping some of his flesh off. His trance started to recede, and was witness of how beastman after beastman fell to the human's attack, with very little casualties happening in turn in the human's lines.

He saw how the few who still tried to get into the city were picked off in the air, and how the birdbrains descended behind the beastmen's lines, attacking them from behind.

How a human very similar to the one he had been battling for a time he couldn't really tell was in combat with the King.

He turned again towards the woman in front of him.

He knew he met his end.

"You were a worthy foe, human." He acknowledged her.

Sometime during their fight, they moved closer to the slaughterhouse tents. He hadn't noticed. He grabbed a limb lying on the ground with his good hand, and took a good bite.

The woman turned to him. Her eyes were a scalding shade of red, as if only being stared by her would make anything to burst up into flames. But her expression was different, it was no longer the battle-crazy smile she had sported at the start of their duel.

"You were boring." She stated dryly. Her face did show very little besides boredom.

Before Urm could process what she had said, she took her mace and held it in front of her. She chanted quicker than any Sage Urm had ever seen, unleashing fiery flames from the spiked head of her weapon, which in turn turned almost white from the heat.

"[Nova's Fury]!"

With a single hit, Urm's entire body was reduced to embers. The last thing he saw, besides the searing flames, was how his comrades started to snap out of their trance and try to flee.

* * *

"Pinch me." Said an incredulous Commander, then continued under his breath, "I thought I was hallucinating back then."

Everyone from the Draconic Kingdom was in similar states of stupefaction. The Queen and the Prime Minister had been very concerned at first when the beastmen started floating towards them, but their worries were soon relieved when a group of five Griffin Knights on their signature mounts started to mow down the beastmen with ease.

The old magic caster with them, Anrous, chuckled at their reactions. He was there to teleport them out if things started getting out of control, and Draudillon was thankful for his presence – otherwise she would have died from the stress of being in the middle of a skirmish against the beastmen. Thankfully, as they were all 'guests', no soldier with her was requested to help the defence.

Then the group of angels appeared.

If Draudillon had any doubts of the existence of a deity on the Celestial City's side, then they were quenched at the sight of the angelic beings. There would be no other reason otherwise for such beings to protect the metropolis.

Then, one of the angels, a feminine-looking one with silver hair that also seemed to be the highest-ranking in the group, talked. It felt like barely above a whisper, but Draudillon could hear her perfectly even more than a hundred metres away.

And then she heard the Beast King – a monstruous-looking tigerfolk with more scars than normal skin or fur, who had an impressive set of lungs – and her blood ran both cold and boiling hot.

That was the one ultimately responsible for her people's misery. She felt dread at the sight of him – although she could barely discern his features at from the distance –but also hot, righteous anger.

And complete desperation. Even with her army in its totality rallied here, she couldn't see her side winning.

And, however strong these newcomers appeared to be, she had years of hearing the brutality of the beastmen attacks, so she was cynical they could weather the assault and come out of it victorious.

Even Gods can be felled. History has plenty of examples of such a thing happening.

A group of priests and priestesses walked to the Draconic Kingdom group's side. Amongst them, a particular woman stood out by her outfit, which was clearly much higher quality than the rest. At her side, another woman, more humbly clothed stood – but Draudillon couldn't help but feel that she had seen the blonde somewhere else.

Then the Hero King made an entrance, slowly descending from the sky as if he were one of those angels that were high in the sky.

"I trust you'll stay for the performance, Draudillon-dono? I suggest you do, you may  _see_  what I was talking about earlier."

Draudillon tried to gulp, but found that her mouth was completely dry.

She just nodded in the affirmative, even if there was nothing more she wanted to than to bail out of the place as soon as possible.

Then the King jumped back into the sky, and Draudillon wondered if he wasn't, in fact, an angel.

Then a massive portal opened far below, from where most of the defending forces walked out of. Their numbers weren't anything impressive compared to other kingdom's armies, much less compared to the gargantuan force of beastmen they were facing.

But they were calm at the prospect of facing such an enemy. Their formations held steady at the charge en masse from the beastmen, and fought with absolute discipline against their savage adversaries.

And, more unnerving of it all, they were actually faring very well.

Beastmen never used much tactics when in combat, as they far surpassed physical capabilities of normal humans. They never needed to use them, as just smashing through their enemies forces was perfectly effective for them. That was the reason why the armies of the Draconic Kingdom rarely ever met beastmen assaults head-on on the open field.

But this army of humans, elves and dwarves was holding the line just fine, against a force many times its size.

The Griffins continued to mow down on the ones who still tried to reach the walls, and the angels did the same until they descended on the battlefield, behind the enemy lines, and started wreaking havoc.

In the span of about ten minutes, several tens of thousands beastmen were killed with very little effort.

Draudillon should have felt relieved at the sight.

But she wasn't. Her worries completely changed from the threat the beastmen posed, to the threat these people posed. At least they were open to talk first, but that served little to calm the Dragon Queen.

Before long, the attacking beastmen started realizing their dire situation, and many of them decided to flee.

Before they could leave the cleared area, an enormous wall sprung from the earth. Only because she had an enhanced vision, Draudillon could discern it was made out of thousands upon thousands of skeletons. She stopped breathing when she saw the skeletons started attacking any beastman that drew close, easily cutting them in half.

"It is judgement upon them by our fair Lady, the rightful punishment given by the Lord of Death, and the revenge of those wronged by these savages."

A priest said, looking at where Draudillon's eyes were fixed.  _"Those skeletons were… my subjects?"_

Then, a blinding light appeared from the other side of the battlefield, from where the Hero King was battling the Beast King. Kainen's sword shone like a sunray in his hand, bathing his surroundings in holy light. Even from where she was observing, she could feel the calming, holy aura it emitted.

The Hero King slew the Beast King, the humans' bane, in a single strike of his holy sword.

Draudillon desperately tried to gulp, but she still had her mouth completely dry.

The battle didn't last much longer. Those beastmen that tried to make a run for it were hunted down mercilessly, and soon enough in the field sounds of battle no longer could be heard.

All within a single hour, throughout which Draudillon couldn't move from her spot as she was completely frozen at the sight.

After the fighting ceased, the majority of the clerics that had been close were teleported to the field to attend to the wounded. She could see some downed defenders here and there, but compared with the sea of beastmen bodies, they might as well weren't there.

Draudillon didn't realize how or when the Hero King came back to the wall, as his voice snapped her out of her thoughts. He didn't look like he had just been in heated combat, he actually looked like he had just donned on his armour, as he was spotless all over.

The redhead smiled, but Draudillon couldn't help but think back on how this man had devastated the strongest forces of the beastmen alone.

"Now that the nuisances are out of the way, we can continue with our meeting, Draudillon-dono. Or would you rather leave the talks for later? I understand if you'll rather go back until tomorrow, dusk is in but a few hours, after all."

* * *

Sitting on her comfortable sofa, Sera pondered what to do next.

The Dominion Authorities she had summoned with magic had despawned just after the fray, so they lasted longer than what they did back in the game. Valkea and the other two she summoned with her racial skills were still around, so Sera ordered the two normal Dominion Authorities to hover around Almha, as the great amount of bodies of the slain beastmen could give raise to undead, or so said the clerics. She wasn't sure if it worked quite like that without the active use of necromancy, but it helped to keep the people at peace.

Valkea was ordered to guard the Hall of Heroes instead; that way Sera could check on her more easily.

Over all, the results of the battle had been a little disappointing. The beastmen's average level by YGGDRASIL's standards were around ten, yet neither her nor a single NPC appeared to have levelled up from the encounter.

She didn't feel like she had gained a level from downing around fifty thousand of those furry menaces that tried to run away eastwards with liberal use of [Maximize Magic: Seeker Bolt] while under the cover of [Greater Invisibility], and if she went by the game's logic, would have given her just enough experience to level up once.

The ones who fled westwards were stopped by Daith, and he also reported that he didn't feel any different.

Drifa who had descended to join the fray reported the same, although neither could really tell how many the Valkyrie had killed. Valkea also didn't report she felt any stronger. The same happened with Kainen and the Generals, and she wasn't sure about the POP guards, but she wasn't betting on it.

Although, she could be wrong with those ones. The NPCs she created herself, so they might be stuck on the level she granted upon them without being able to improve, but the POPs weren't created  _directly_  by her so they might not be burdened with that.

It could also be that level scaling worked differently than back on YGGDRASIL; she remembers a game from when he was growing up that if the enemy slain was of too low a level, then it didn't grant any experience.

Which leads her to what she had found in her little journey in the New World. Despite having way too many similarities– almost uncannily so – with YGGDRASIL, there were many points where they differed. Talents, Martial Arts, and even Tiered spells that not existed back in the game – as far as she knew, there was no Tier Zero, for example – made the prospect of a different scaling not too beyond belief.

Also, that compared with late-game, this world was rather pathetic. Which also made sense, now that she thought about it. If this was a real world and dying was permanent – with the rare exception of being able to  _pay_  the service for resurrection – there weren't going to be many people who put themselves on dangerous situations on purpose, therefore lowering the average level of combatants quite significantly.

All in all she wouldn't call her fun trip a waste of time, as she learnt some very interesting things, but she couldn't say that it was efficient. She had overestimated the new worlders quite a bit – though she hadn't dismissed completely the notion that the Empire's Court Wizard may have been a player yet – but in her defence she hadn't thought that spells of the  _Third Tier_  were considered reserved for 'extraordinary individuals', or that anything over Sixth Tier is 'the magic of the Gods'.

She didn't think that using [Greater Invisibility] in tandem with other basic stealth spells would be able to fool them, so she hadn't even tried that approach. Plus, she wanted to have something fresh to draw inspiration from – something that she sadly didn't find as the power gap was just too big for her to find any of it even remotely exciting. Truly a pity, she wanted to see how an adventurer's life was like in real life, but it ended being way too underwhelming.

Getting information was easier this way, as there were none who could counter stealth magic. But it did make it less appealing, not a good way to develop a good plot.

She was conflicted about it.

In one hand, she could have a good storyline developing in her hands, and in the other, the safety of her creations was still uncertain. This Paradyne was said to rival armies by himself, but the same could be said for any half-decent caster within Almha's walls by this world's standards.

There were figures of legend that could have been stronger than her, although again, it was uncertain whether if they even still lived.

Setting on a compromise, she decided to gain more information, but not share the majority of it with her 'mortal' creations unless the situation deemed it necessary.

After all, those beyond the portal were 'created' to be mostly independent from her orders, and she would be a spectator of their actions for the most part, taking notes here and there. Intervening only in times of dire need, even if there was a part of her mind that was screaming at her to not let things come to that in the first place.

She had to remind herself that it wouldn't make a good plot. On top of it, it would be come off like a very protective parent, and no one would like to read that. It was debatable whether the denizens would accept such treatment, but that was not the point.

Using the [Mirror of Remote Viewing], she scanned the surroundings, particularly where a great amount of clerics were healing – or even resurrecting in some cases – the humans that had been captive of the beastmen.

And they were many. Like, if they were to get into the city, they would double the population, and she didn't know if Almha had the infrastructure or supplies to provide for so many people.

[Hero.] She contacted Kainen via [Message].

[My Lady. I am most grateful for your aides' help during the battle, but it had been not necessary. We would have been victorious even without your divine protection.]

[Nonsense. Those savages didn't just attempt to conquer you, my creations, my children, but to completely annihilate every last one of you. Something I couldn't let by.]

[I am filled with gratitude, for how you think about us, my Lady.]

[However, this isn't what I contacted you for, Hero King. I meant to ask, what is going to be done about those human captives your forces just rescued.]

[I had discussed things with the Dragon Queen, the sovereign of the nation from where most of these people hail from. They fall under my jurisdiction now, in exchange of protecting her Kingdom while it recuperates. ]

Interesting. So that was why the Dragon Queen had been in a meeting with him not long ago. There was still a small issue she needed to address, though.

[However, how are you going to deal with them? Almha can't handle such a massive increase in population, and your stocks are going to suffer greatly before long. As much as I want to help, I won't solve every problem you face, much less ones sprung by short-sightedness]

[You need not to worry about that, my Lady. However great our city is, I know that it can't hold all the rescued captives, not even half of them. For the time being, they will be lodged on a camp outside the city, away from the corpses of the beastmen. It will be like that for a short time, as we have discovered the location of a ruined city not far from here, where we plan to move most of them to live in. Many nobles have also made their interest known that they would like to settle on the so-called Silent City by the locals.]

[Why not do it right away?]

[By what the commander from the Draconic Kingdom told me, there appears to be a group of Soul Eaters on the city, who were also responsible for its downfall; however, we haven't yet confirmed whether it is true or not. I will dispatch a group first to scout and deal with the undead if they are in the city before sending the rest of the people.

Also, I would like to ask permission to seed the fields around the city with the divine crops you have granted us, to maintain the new population.]

Sera had been trying to find a way to ask the King to do something like that for some time now, as produce from YGGDRASIL could be used to exchange into gold coins. Now the opportunity presented itself on silver platter!

[Yes, that is acceptable, Hero King. However, I would have to ask you to bring me a portion of it as offerings in exchange.]

[Thank you, my Lady. It shall be done. One more thing…]

[Proceed…]

[I would ask of you to take them under your divine protection, my Lady. They are my subjects just like the rest, now.]

She took a moment to think about what he had said. She didn't think there was anything innately divine about her, not even now. True, she can give personality to angels, but besides that there was nothing omnipotent in her qualities, and true, they might as well be in the eyes of the new worlders, but so would be Kainen if it came down to it.

Saying that she gives protection as if she were to be a real goddess would be pointless, realistically speaking, but very important in how the plot develops.

While she cared more for her own creations above anything else, she couldn't deny that she felt the need to also care for those humans. She even started to feel a little bad for the beastmen she annihilated before.

What would the 'character Goddess' say?

[You know the answer, Hero. They might not be my creations, but they are humans like you in the end. However, as it is said, they are your subjects, so you have the duty to protect and govern them. If they are my followers, it would be my responsibility to guide them. If they are not, then I have no say.]

The Hero King didn't reply immediately.

[I understand, Sera-sama. I will make sure to make your word reach all confines of this world.]

…

Well, that was a take, Sera guessed. It wasn't what she had in mind, but it worked nonetheless to keep things interesting.

Come to think of it, she had never specified how her creations would react to a vastly different religion, like the case of the more widespread polytheistic faith of the Four Gods. It wasn't as she hadn't created one in her novels, but she hadn't made them yet interact with what was the old Kyrsian Kingdom – where Almha was capital of – so how would they react would be completely organic.

Fascinating. Would it unfold as the Holy Wars, or would it be more of a peaceful coexistence. Maybe even a syncretism, as the 'religion of the Goddess' wasn't as strict in some ways compared with similar religions back on Earth.

Humming, Sera's thoughts drifted through lines like those, as she wrote book after book without even noticing.

* * *

Everyone in his unit was thunderstruck at what they had witnessed. They had almost shat their pants at the sight of so many beasmen assembled to assault a floating city – which gave the captain all the bad feelings with its similitude with Eryuentiu – but that was eclipsed when they saw angels descend from the heavens to defend the city.

He recognized a Dominion Authority when he saw one, and he saw  _five_  of them.

All within his unit were deeply religious – the same as any other Scripture, really – so many of them wanted nothing more than to kneel and pray to the servants of the Gods, but he had to remind them – and himself – that the mission was of upmost importance.

Then they were witness of the gruesome battle that took place. He knew that with only one of those Dominion Authorities, the beastmen were done for; but knowing what would happen and seeing it were two different things.

Especially when 'normal' soldiers joined the fray – 'normal' that could compete on even terms with the Theocracy's greatest God-kins from what the Captain could see.

This was very different from what he had expected. The Conclave and the Pontifex needed to hear of this.

* * *

"Is it true, then?" Asked a young man.

Of above average height, perfectly unblemished skin, blond hair with magical illumination and amethyst-purple eyes, clothed with the finest robes man could possibly get their hand on, he was the walking definition of royalty. His every move posed a graceful regality very few could imitate, his tone never betrayed his thoughts, looking as a great if mysterious ruler.

"Indeed it is, my Lord. Our contacts with the Theocracy had confirmed such, even if they really didn't want to believe it to be true."

Jircniv took a moment to contemplate the bigger picture.

He had been aware of the appearance of a new nation bordering the Draconic Kingdom for a while now, but he had been cynical when his spies had reported that these newcomers had apparently dealt with the small beastman problem that had plagued the southern nation.

The Beastmen's invasion was why he hadn't made any move against Draudillon's Kingdom – well, that and the fact that his troops had to cross through a mountainous range, but that wasn't as much of a deterrent as it was a logistical nightmare – and now the savage beasts were gone, just like that?

It had been the official statement from the Draconic Kingdom, that they were no longer at war with the Beastmen Kingdom as the latter was no more. And that Draudillon's rule was protected by this character, the Hero King, for the time being.

But the Theocracy had been nothing if not resourceful when it came down to information, and they had always given him accurate reports, so he chose to believe their confirmations for now.

In other situation, he may have considered sending two other legions to take over control over the Draconic Kingdom's beaten lands, but entering in conflict with a nation he didn't have full information about wasn't his style.

Plus, his focus was on the Kingdom, as has been for years now. First he would deal with Re-Estize, then with any other power.

But if what the reports said was true, then he would need to find more talented individuals to serve him. Maybe even expand the Imperial Knights.

Moving his head to the side, he directed his gaze towards Baziwood.

"Any news about the two who caught Nimble's attention?" He was interested about the two women who had fought on even terms with a Death Knight, a feat that would be difficult even for his own elite Knights.

The Knight Captain looked at his fellow Knights before looking back at Jircniv, shaking his face. "Nah, they hadn't make an appearance since then, Your Majesty. They weren't even seen coming back to Arwintar, so we don't know where they went." He said, then a half-grin morphed into his mouth while he scratched his chin. "It is strange … how should I put it. It comes across very suspicious to me."

The Bloody Emperor hummed. He was prepared to make the two a job offer; depending on how they performed, the Imperial Knights might have changed from four to six.

Alas, it was impossible to reach those two for now, so he might as well continue looking for promising adventurers and workers. "Hm. They aren't all that important, but if they are seen, report it and ask them to come to the Palace. Meanwhile, keep an eye open for other talents."

…

"Is there any information on which magics these newcomers have used?"

The Emperor sighed. As much as he admired Fluder, the old man's obsession with the arcane wasn't a thing he wanted to deal with daily. And neither did the Emperors before him; that was the primary reason behind the existence of the Ministry of Magic, after all. To get Fluder out of the Imperial Palace so one didn't have to deal with his endless ramblings about magic.

The agent – who hadn't been yet dismissed and was still kneeling in place even after he had been completely ignored while the Emperor talked with his Knights – gulped before answering the question of the powerful wizard. "Yes, Fluder-sama. Although it is nothing very detailed, both sides report the use of powerful beams of light, and liberal use of what appeared to be [Lightning] and [Fireball] spells, amongst other things."

Jircniv didn't even need to be looking at Fluder to see how the eyes of the Court Wizard started to shine very brightly.

Fluder stroked his long beard in a gesture anyone who knew him could tell he was intrigued or elated at finding something about magic. "Interesting. I may have to pay a visit to this new nation to see if there is anything I can learn about their magic." He finished with a small laugh.

Jircniv fondled his brow at the old man's antics, but a small smile found his way onto his face.

Before Fluder could get into a longer tedious tirade about magic, the Bloody Emperor dismissed the agent, who saluted and left instantly.

It was useful intelligence, for now. He needed to know more before acting against the south for now, and such an ambition was years away either way. He reckoned that the Kingdom wouldn't last more than five years if things kept at the pace they were going, and a few years more to stabilize the situation before he could set his eyes on another conquest.

A few years would be more than enough to gather enough information.

* * *

"'AIGHT BOYS! Move it! We need to prepare an acceptable fortified position, ASAP! And call the clerics to deal with 'em damn undead horsies! Chop chop, get to it!" A short, but extremely bulky man said. Nay, he was no man, he was a dwarf – one of the if not the strongest dwarf under his majesty's banner, in fact – donning one of the most impressive sets of extremely heavy plate armour known to mortals, behind only the silvery plate worn by Drifa, the protector. His armour was so heavy, that any other normal mortal who tried to wear it would be instead crushed by its mere weight.

But he moved with it like if it weighted nothing at all.

He was the Commander of the Paladin's Order, Tvor the Onyx General, from the prestigious dwarven House Volund, known for their supreme craftsmanship. Like his armour or his weapon, for instance.

In all truth, any within his corps would have been able to deal with the destroyed remnants of the three Soul Eaters that laid on the long-abandoned streets, but he felt that he had done enough 'bout them already. They weren't an active threat anymore, so it wasn't his job.

His orders were: clear the undead (if any), and then build a temporary wooden fort that had to be able to hold the majority of the population o' this new town.

He had grumbled – like always – about being given a task far below his or his corps' abilities, but he had acquiesced in the end, after all, he had some good head smashing a few days back on their little skirmish with the furballs.

And he had to give it to the undead horses, they had been some fun fighting against. Some of the weaker links of his Order had a bit of a problem handling 'em, so he would have to rough 'em up until they are able to fight one alone with an arm tied on their back. Tvor is no damn pansy like Lyn who would let his troops get soft.

Seeing the priests gettin' to sanctify the grounds and to get rid of the curse of the undead, he turned towards where the fort was decided to be built.

A rather sizable river passed through the ghost town, and to the northwest was a good elevation which was covered by the river on many sides, leaving the only viable way up through the city if one didn't want to deal with the water. Not particularly effective by itself, but hey, defensive things piled up until one got the perfect fortress. A dwarf should know.

He had ordered that only the dwarves under his command were to actually build the wooden fort, as the damned butterfingered hands of the humans and elves would only make things go slower, rather than faster. Instead, the humans were to cut the trees used to build from the surroundings, while most of the elves were to patrol – because the damn pansies were too uncomfortable with the prospect of choppin' down a tree.

He shook his head. Damn good soldiers, the elves were; but too much of a green thumb to damage nature if it wasn't absolutely needed. No matter, he needed someone to patrol either way.

He inspected his surroundings while stroking his thick, brown beard, a symbol of great pride for the dwarven people.

He saw a city in nigh-perfect condition, except from where a few houses had collapsed from lack of maintenance – which spoke volumes on the crappy wood and stonework of this place's original inhabitants. Of which, mysteriously, are no bodies left.

Now, he may not be an academic, but he knew for damn sure that undead did not eat other bodies, and Soul Eaters eat, well, the souls of those who they kill, so they don't spawn more undead that way. They also don't eat, because they are undead.

He wondered what happened to the bodies. Because, even if it was 'omething that happened more than a century ago, bones always remain.

It was also a thing to wonder where in the abyss had the Soul Eaters come from in the first place, it is common knowledge that a group of low level undead spawn more undead until a higher type undead is spawned, and the cycle repeats; but there weren't any signs of other types of undead, and the Soul Eaters are fairly high levelled.

Something smelled fishy 'bout it, and by fishy he meant good old bad necromancy. Damn eggheads with god-complex can't understand that dealing with the dead is a delicate thing, that one needs to ask permission to the Goddess first to only resurrect people, let alone make these monstrosities. Instead of tryin' to understand the divine and why playing with the dead is a bad idea, they try to do it blindly.

He honestly doesn't have the slightest amount of sympathy for those nutjobs – most of 'em end up as dead as their creations, and those who don't meet their ends on the chopping block.

Passing through the streets, he couldn't help but notice that almost all doors were wide opened, suggesting that everyone left in a hurry. Understandable if they were under attack by such monsters.

Entering one of such houses, he almost choked at the amount of dust he kicked up. Then he saw the amount of spiderwebs clinging from absolute  _everywhere_. But beyond that, there were elements of everyday living in all houses. Obviously this place had not been looted, nor had the inhabitants enough time to pack up and leave.

The buildings themselves were 'aight, he guessed. They couldn't ever possibly compare to the perfect architecture present everywhere on the Celestial City, to the smallest shack.

The houses were better than what the people coming here had been living in for the last few days (and before), so there shouldn't be much to complain from their part.

Apparently, all the lousy nobles had been eaten first by the beastmen, so all of the people they had now were normal villagers or average townspeople.

Before long, his dwarven brothers and sisters had completed the fortification, which was a very good woodwork for such a small span of time. It was plain and without any adornments, but it would do the job, so he couldn't complain.

He lamented the lack of good stone to work with in the surroundings, so wooden defences would have to do for now. They wouldn't get access to stone and metals until they started to settle close to the mountains up north, and that was long ways out still.

He heard a familiar flutter on the air approaching them, and saw that one of Lyn's boys had come for some reason. Tvor furrowed his brow; nothing should happen until the people were to move in the next day.

The Griffin Knight dismounted and made his way towards him before saluting. It was a good thing this was Sigmund, one of his old subordinates. At least Tvor could stand him, as he very obviously didn't slack off like their captain while daydreaming about 'heroic deeds'.

"Sir!" Sigmund said – surprisingly, as he was known for being rather tight on the lips.

"Yea, soldier. I trust you are doing well." The Onyx replied, testing his former subordinate.

"Yes, sir! I had not once stopped training, and since my near defeat at the hands of the beastmen, I have redoubled my efforts at becoming stronger!"

It was impressive hearing Sigmund talk too much. "Well done, soldier." Tvor said with a grin – although it could be barely seen as his mouth was heavily covered by his prized beard – before proceeding with the more official matters. "So, what's up? Is there another group of them furballs that need a good smakin'?"

The Knight shook his head. "No, sir. I was ordered to scout ahead of the group, and when I reached here I was to give a hand if you needed help with dealing with monsters…" the soldier looked around "…which you obviously don't need."

The General frowned again. "What? The group is already movin'? I thought they wouldn't make their way 'ere until tomorrow."

Sigmund attempted to shrug. "I don't know, sir. I think that they knew that you would take less than a day, and I think I heard that someone had confirmed that the coast was cleared."

Tvor planted his great halberd on the ground and crossed his arms. "Well, the place ain't as in good condition as we thought, there are several collapsed houses, and not enough to give 'em good space either way. It'll be cramped for a few days until new houses are built." He said, before he started stroking his beard again. "And the fort might be able to hold most of the population inside its walls, but that doesn't mean it will be pretty."

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the original city appeared to have lacked walls, or they were made out of wood and decayed long ago. So the only defensive walls currently on the city were those the dwarves had built in the top of that hill.

At the helpless body expression Sigmund did, Tvor waved his hand. "Don't worry 'bout it, son. I know it's not your fault. Go on, you're dismissed."

After the Knight left the scene, Tvor turned around to continue inspecting his surroundings, grumbling all the while.

Well, at least the wood here was of pretty good quality, all things considered.

* * *

If there was something that changed Evnie… Tessa's core being, it wasn't her life of luxury changing drastically and having to escape for her life to a simple, humble life as a housewife. It was what she had witnessed a few days prior, how the tormenters in her worst nightmares were reduced to nothing but ash.

They were no more.

She didn't know what she felt. Perhaps it was closure, for all the people she had come to know, like and love in the village. Maybe it was a macabre ecstasy at seeing the monsters being annihilated.

Maybe it was that she had found something to believe in, at last.

She hadn't been believed in the Four Gods since little. Since her kindest older brother had been unjustly murdered and her little sister had died by a vile sickness within the same week. Since she saw the state of the realm with her own eyes and realized how dark reality truly is.

The only thing that felt similar was when she brought to this world her baby boy, seeing in his face her late older brother.

Joyfulness. She had always been told that she had a too kind heart, and that it was a liability. That someone on her position should be more cold-hearted. She didn't think herself kind hearted. At least she hadn't until her child brought back her genuine smile.

Was it wrong to want people to not suffer from pointless things? Back then it appeared to be the case.

The village had been a good community, small and isolated, but accepted her nonetheless. It had been certainly a breath of fresh air. She had felt like she could be herself finally.

Then stuff out of nightmares shattered that reality.

She gulped. No, she already got over it.

At first, she wasn't sure what to think about these people. Waking up after being killed wasn't something she would have ever expected, as she knew she wasn't strong enough to withstand the normal methods of resurrection. By all means, her body should have turned to ash the moment a normal priest tried to cast such a spell upon her.

Yet it didn't.

These people claimed that they hadn't done anything, and that it was divine intervention. She hadn't believed them fully then, as the concept of the divine was a… delicate matter for her.

In contrast of any expectation she had for the ecclesiastic, the brothers and sisters of the Faith of the Goddess were a noble handful, humble to a fault. Even if they were, allegedly, from another world, she found she resonated with them much better than with many people native from her own world.

Sure, she hadn't been with them for long, but even in that short amount of time, she had seen how the Nobility of the Celestial City weren't openly corrupt, how the lower echelons of society didn't struggle with their everyday life – they used gold coins as a currency, for the Goddess' sake – and how everything didn't seem to fall apart while everyone just watched.

Then, she saw the servants of their Goddess descend from the heavens to smite the army of beastmen. She recognized angels when she saw them, from reading numerous manuscripts back in her caged life.

Their mere presence had calmed her greatly, with a feeling she couldn't quite describe. It felt like being held by the arms of her mother again like how she was when very little.

After the fact, there were so many people like her, who had been prisoners waiting to be butchered by the beastmen, liberated. She could see in their eyes, the despair and brokenness. But also a ray of hope, like what she felt herself.

Tessa joined the Faith not long after. She wanted to make a change, she wanted to believe in something benevolent that would protect the innocent in their time of need.

Her being friends with the Holy Maiden had certainly accelerated the process; but there were many others like her who were willing to join those who saved them – mostly people like her who lost most if not all those they loved.

She might have not come from the Creation of the Goddess, but that didn't mean she couldn't pray for her protection; the Lady was that magnanimous.

In short time, she would join the others into settling a town not far away from the Celestial City. A place to start again, guided by the light of the Goddess.

The place's name was already decided. Neomment, in the Old Kyrsian meaning "New Home", and apparently the name of an old and important city in their previous world.

Tessa felt that the name was perfect for the lost souls seeking the light. As a mere disciple, she couldn't do much yet – she wasn't able to cast divine magic or do any of the frankly marvellous deeds other members of the faith could – but she could attempt to help translate the Holy Manuscripts to the Draconic Kingdom's word. First she would have to learn how to read Kyrsian, yes, but she knows that not everyone would have to do so, and it would be difficult for those who could already read to adjust to another type of writings.

Plus, this way, she could spread the Word of her Lady through the world easier. Although the Draconic writing isn't as widespread as the Kingdom's or the Empire's, it is already known and there are translators of those writings already established.

That didn't mean that she couldn't help the people in the more mundane tasks when it is needed. She might have not been ever the best at hard work, but that didn't stop her for trying to help.

All for a better, peaceful future. For those around her. For her. But more importantly, for her son.

* * *

It was a clear night, the light of the moon passed through the open windows of the halls, lighting its interior in the absence of candles or torches. A soft wind whistled against the walls of the courtyard in the middle of the Ministry of Magic.

Fluder barely ever rested in his pursuit of magical knowledge, as his more than two centuries studying anything related to it could testify. He did many things while in his quest to peer into the Abyss of Magic, things that many would find reprehensible, but he didn't regret them. Not a single bit.

All the knowledge he had gathered throughout his life had been thoroughly documented and meticulously archived to make it easier to locate things he wanted to read again, in the strange case he forgot anything. It also served as a good study material for his many pupils, but that was mostly secondary.

His experiments with the undead had not been going as smoothly as he had hoped, but slightly better than what he expected.

Undead never tire, making it easier for them to do strenuous tasks constantly over a long period of time, which in turn would make things like tending the fields or construct new buildings trivial, reducing time and costs exponentially. Fluder didn't care all that much about those points though, he was happy he got an official excuse to play around with necromancy and study it in depth without some person or another pestering him whether it was a wise decision.

Maybe by studying the lower-class undead he might get to understand their nature better, and hopefully find a way to control the Death Knight he had locked on the Ministry's underground. The prospects of transforming himself into a Lich weren't discarded completely, but he didn't see much of a point as he had already reached a point of nigh-immortality without the weaknesses that come with being undead.

He felt a presence in the hallway. "Who's there?" There had been numerous enemies back in his youth that were able of invisibility magic, to which he had developed a sixth sense to detect them, even if they could escape the scrutiny of his magic-seeing eyes.

He knew he was far above already than most of the Evil Deities already, so there was very little for him to be worried about. He may have stopped in his tracks to survey his surroundings, but he never stopped stroking his beard, and his mind was still partly on the subject of the undead.

Suddenly, the image of a woman in full armour materialized in front of him, a scant few metres away. The moonlight caressed her features, displaying and enhancing her transcendent beauty together with her exotic black-colour hair and eyes. But Fluder didn't care of such trivialities, and he hadn't for a very long time now. However, he took note that this was one of the adventurers Jircniv was looking for – which was worth of consideration – but now she also proved to be versed in a particular branch of magic he was still unfamiliar with even when his eyes didn't pick up any magical talent from her, which made her even more intriguing.

He didn't even bother asking her how did she got in there, as it was pretty self-evident. Instead, he studied her form, never stopping caressing his beard. "Do you have any business with me, girl?" He did want to rip the secrets behind invisibility magic out of her, but he didn't want to come across as desperate. He might come to have a better deal if he acted cool; he had learnt that during his starting days as a magician. He who shows more interest gets the shorter end of the stick at the end.

The woman didn't move. Fluder noted that, in contrast of what was reported, she didn't have any weapon with her – supposedly, she had a halberd made out of mythril with her at all times – but instead she had a rather intriguing-looking crystal in her hand. Maybe that was the source of her magic powers?

"Greetings, Court Wizard. I bring you a message from my Lady, but first I have to ask you a question" Her tone didn't carry any sort of inflection, and her face's muscles barely even moved.

Fluder furrowed his brow. He hadn't heard anything these two adventurers were under the protection of any noble. Or it was that they were outsiders? Either way, if it didn't pertain with the Abyss of Magic, he had no concern with it. But he was growing ever more interested in the crystal gleaming with obvious magical properties, so he would hear her question for now. He nodded, motioning her to proceed with her question.

"I'll be blunt. Does the word 'Yggdrasil' mean anything to you?" Fluder saw that her grip on the crystal tightened as she asked – meaning that it was a really important topic.

Moving his head to the side, he stroked his beard even more frequently than normal as he scanned his mind in search for any mentions of such a word. "I can answer what I know, however, I don't give off information freely. I expect a compensation for it."

The woman studied his face for a moment, before nodding.

"The only mentions of that word that I've ever seen were when referring to the old city of the Eight Greed Kings, Eryuentiu. Apparently, both have the same meaning – "the tree in the centre of the world", although Yggdrasil has an obscure etymology, as it isn't derived from the old tongue or any other for that matter. It probably has the same origin as the Eight Greed Kings themselves." He said, trying to find any other reference to that word. He wanted to have any leverage to use in exchange for any new magic knowledge, but sadly nothing more came to his mind.

The warrior in front of him narrowed her eyes. "Very well, what kind of compensation did you have in mind? I doubt you are the kind to ask for gold, as in your position you probably have all you could possibly want."

Fluder waved his hand, dismissing the idea of material gain. No, he was not interested in pretty-looking things if they weren't inherently magical.

"No, I care not for such things, you are correct. But I am an academic; I study magic, in any of its forms. I see that you are in possession of magic items; one that I have no knowledge of would suffice. Or a tome about the arcane, but I don't think you would have something like that with you."

The woman – Athena, if he remembered correctly – raised her hand to her temple, in what Fluder quickly recognized as the use of [Message]. He didn't react outwardly, but as he continued to caress his beard he tried to pry into her silent conversation – something that people had learned that could be done easily, so the spell had been rendered unreliable long ago.

But he found that he couldn't. Fluder could only hear what amounted to senseless gibberish. Whoever this woman worked for, they had found a way to use [Message] safely without the dangers of third parties interfering with the connection, which piqued the old wizard's interest even more.

"Very well, that can be arranged. However, we are not fully aware of the extent of your knowledge to know what to give you." She said, but she didn't leave much space for him to reply before she started talking again. "However, my Lady thinks that you might be more interested on a job offer she has. That way, you could have access to study all the tomes about magic you could ever want to."

Fluder couldn't help but to inhale deeply at the proposition. However, it was too good to be true, he hadn't seen or heard about any other collection dedicated to magic grander than his own. "As… interesting as your Lady's proposition is, you have shown me no proof of you having anything worthy enough for me to turncoat from the Empire. What I have here are decades upon decades upon decades of research and stored knowledge, and as far as I can see, you only have the ability to use the Fourth Tier spell [Invisibility], the First Tier [Message]… " he made sure to let her know that he knew what she had just done, but she showed no reaction. He didn't let her know that he couldn't understand a thing, though. "…and that you have that magical-gleaming crystal. Nothing out of the realms of my possibilities, in comparison I can almost peer into the realm of the Magic of the Gods."

"And which is then, the extent of your capability?" She asked, a very slight tinge of interest could be recognized. Or he thought she had.

Answering truthfully wouldn't hurt him in any way. There was virtually no human who could pose a threat to him, beyond a group of very limited individuals. He was not even afraid to face Gazef Stronoff or the Four Imperial Knights, by their own or all together, they didn't pose a threat to him.

Only the thirteen heroes could meet him in equal terms, a group from very few still remain. His rival Rigrit Bers Carau might still be stronger than him, but Fluder didn't have a magic item of unimaginable power from Eryuentiu like she did.

If this woman in front of him was a possible gate to new discoveries to gain more knowledge, he would take his chances.

"Why, the very limits of mortal understanding on Magic! The Mastery of the Sixth Tier is a feat very few throughout history had been able to proudly proclaim like I do!"

He didn't think that he would be able to learn anything ground breaking by itself, but under the years he had learnt that power does not come alone and especially not easily. It was still worth a shot to gather all he could get his hands on, though.

The woman frowned, as if she didn't believe what she heard. It was understandable, for the majority of the populace, the Fourth Tier was something of fairytales – nevermind anything higher. It was such a pity, though, if she was that surprised with his Sixth Tier, then she would not be of muc-

"Only Sixth Tier?" Her voice carried the first distinct emotion that could be recognized, and it was of confusion. Then it turned…  _disappointed_ , of all things. "I knew my Lady was being paranoid."

Fluder's mind grew to a halt.

_What._

It has been the first time his ability in magic was catalogued as anything less than impressive, much less just dismissed like that. A pit grew in his stomach, but at the same time, excitement started to grow at the same rate.

He still was a professional, so he had to be cynical to such claims. But before he could ask any more, the Warrior retired one of her gauntlets, leaving in plain sight her ringed fingers – rings that if they weren't magic items, he would eat his staff – and proceeded to withdraw one of said pieces of jewellery.

Then, Fluder could finally see her magical aura. His words died on his throat. He could not breathe, as he couldn't blink, heck, he couldn't even hear anymore. That level of astonishment he was under.

With his magic-seeing vision, he counted. One. Two. Three.

Eight.

This woman in front of him was able to cast Eighth Tier magics.

Fluder could not contain his excitement. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he kneeled in front of this…  _Divine being_  that was in front of him.

Finally! Finally he found – more that it found him instead – a way to peer further into the Abyss of Magic, at long last!

"I know it is disrespectful, but allow me to kneel here!" he started begging. He no longer cared to appear as if he had the upper hand, because he quite frankly didn't have it. And dignity as a measly mortal being as him would matter little to a divine being such as her, either way. "Please enlighten me with your knowledge! I beg of you, please! All I ever want is to peer into the Abyss of Magic! I offer you any and everything I have in exchange!"

Looking up, who he saw was no longer the black-haired woman clad in mythril armour, but someone similar – although with silver hair and eyes – wearing a set of shiny silvery armour while holding an exquisitely decorated set of a spear and a shield. Both magic items felt so powerful that Fluder instantly knew they would be able to shatter entire mountains with little effort.

His heart beat so fast that if not for his magically acquired resistance to most normal physical damage, he would have been in a serious problem.

"Pray not to me, man." The Goddess in front of him stated. "For I am no subject of worship."

His head shot up, completely disbelieving. What? How? How could such a being not be worshipped? Wasn't she the Deity who presides over Magic?

Before any such thought was spoken, a black void hole in space appeared further behind the divine being.

From it, another woman walked… flew forth. Her wings were obvious evidence of her supernatural origins. Donning clothes that emanated power, to the last fabric. Power that no mortal had thought could even exist.

And with the use of his Talent, Fluder could see that her magic power surpassed even the goddess in armour.

Was this Athena's – or whatever might be her real name – Lady?

Fluder didn't know, he couldn't even think straight in her presence.

White and gold, pureness incarnate approached him, floating in the air using her majestic wings. Her aura of magic power almost drowned him, but he was too devout in his pursuit to peer into the abyss of magic to fall unconscious.

"Please, have everything. All I want is knowledge…" he repeated again, now with less strength to his voice.

"Everything? Would you give me your absolute loyalty, in return to be able to accomplish your dream?" Her soft, melodic voice that at the same time was imposing to an unbelievable degree reached his ears, each word a glorious work of music. Her words promised everything he ever wanted.

"Everything! Yes, I offer everything to your exalted being, oh Master of Magic!"

The Goddess in front of him serenely smiled upon him, which seemed to magically calm his nerves. Truly, a most mighty being literally smiled upon him. He could almost see his bright future already.

_"It is glorious"_

* * *

In short few weeks, the Silent City was no more, and on its place, the flourishing town of Neomment was thriving with ever expanding infrastructure projects: road restorations, new houses to better accommodate its new residents, various buildings for administrative, religious and official purposes, an impressive looking wooden wall surrounding the living quarters, and a very complex irrigation system for the fields no new worlder had ever seen, at least on this century.

Dwarven master architects, with the motivation of a certain elven Noble House well known for their mercantile mindset, quickly moved into the newly settled city and started making wonders of engineering together with their apprentices, in just a fraction of the time a normal human group would. They, however good work they did with the available wood, still lamented that they could not build more 'sturdy' buildings made out of stone.

The city's direct administration was given to the financially-oriented House Eileifr, although many other Noble Houses decided to have their own manors built in the city while the land was still comparatively cheap. A long-term inversion, one might say.

The Faith had also moved in with a few important figures, but more surprisingly for everyone, a good amount of acolytes recently initiated from the native population.

There had been many that had seen the goodness of the Goddess and turned to her for guidance, true, but they weren't actually the majority. Many still followed their old religion, and were left alone about it, but there were no priests of the Four Gods amongst the survivors so the worship of the Four Gods turned form a collective event to a more individual one.

Most, however, lost any faith they might've once had after what happened to them. Some of them slowly turned to the Faith of the Goddess seeking comfort, but the majority of them decided to immerse themselves in the everyday work till exhaustion, in an effort to forget and put the nightmares to rest.

There were many differences between being under the rule of the now-named Celestial Kingdom and under the Draconic Kingdom. For example, even the poorest beggars in the Celestial Kingdom would be a filthy rich man in any other human nation as the only coinage was gold. Second was, the tax collectors – at least for the time being – weren't trying to extort them of everything they had.

Depending on where one came from, some townsfolk even found surprising that the Governor or people from his retinue didn't try to have their way with the commoners.

People who were from villages found it strange that the crops they planted were always ready to harvest within a single week – as normally months upon months of careful tending to the fields was needed for them to grow into that stage. Both the officials and the people of the Faith claimed that the plants were granted on them by the Goddess herself.

The day before harvest there was always a gathering in the newly built chapel of the Faith, and in the day after harvest a small portion of the produce was offered in the altar within, praying for the continued divine protection of the Goddess.

Prospects said that within a month, the city would be almost completely self-sufficient, with the exceptions of all metalwork as there was no metal to turn into tools in the surroundings of the city. There is evidence that there was once a small amount of iron nearby, but it was long since depleted, probably by the original inhabitants of the city.

Coexisting with elves and dwarves was a novel experience for many, but they weren't as different as the new worlders had expected them to be, and considering they were saved by these people, well, they weren't too picky anyways.

Pretty much anything is better than being herded as cattle, anyways.

In the following days, more people from the Draconic Kingdom came into town, looking and hoping to find friends and loved ones amongst city's population. Many heartfelt re-encounters and heart-breaking disclosures alike were experienced by the visitors and the citizens.

Even if with the few coins they made all of the people in the city would be well off by months on end on the outside, the great majority decided to keep living in the reconstructing city.

They never had felt so safe in their lives. Being witnesses of what the guards could do, they felt like no harm would ever befall them again if they followed the King's law, so many did so gladly.

The ones visiting the city, especially those who had nothing left back in the Draconic Kingdom as they went broke and had to sell all their property or lost their homes during the beastmen invasion, also decided to move in – which over the following weeks caused even more people fleeing extreme poverty and starvation.

The city had barely enough space for the original intended population, and that was after many new housing blocks were built. With the extra influx of people, the King decided that instead of continue to increase the size of the city – as doing so would render the prepared defences pointless as buildings would need to be built outside of them – the people would instead move into the nearby countryside, mostly on the riverside of the Sharrukin river, creating new villages and small townships.

The migrating had stopped considerably after the Hero King and the Dragon Queen had numerous meetings, in where different agreements were made and further clarified, including trade contracts of foodstuffs and the temporary hiring of engineers and architects from the Celestial Kingdom to the Draconic Kingdom, in exchange the Draconic Kingdom was to be a tributary under the Hero King for the next thirty years, with room for more negotiations.

The more mercantile oriented individuals in the Celestial Kingdom took opportunities to reach to good private deals with the other side, and started to set their sights beyond the Dragon Queen's domain. Similarly, the most devout followers of the Goddess made it their duty to disseminate their faith amongst the native population, something that at first was mostly ignored, but quickly gained popularity from the populace for their charitable acts of free-healing, and loathing from the upper echelons of the church of the Four Gods for the same reason, who tried to shut down with legal actions the operations of the followers of the Goddess as their acts negatively affected the Church's coffers.

But unluckily for them, the Faith of the Goddess was not to be prosecuted – legally – due to the agreements between the Dragon Queen and the Hero King.

So, things escalated on the unlawful side. The priests of the Faith couldn't be harmed directly, as attempts to do so had proven to be fruitless because their guards were much too strong, but that didn't mean hired thugs couldn't go after converts and even people who were only curious. Priests of the Four Gods denied any allegations of them being responsible, even going as far as publicly state that such actions were reprehensible, just after paying the thugs who did such deeds.

Other people from the Celestial City had gone to visit the Draconic Kingdom, stirring numerous interesting rumours, both true and false in equal amounts, about the newfound nation – which, as normal, such rumours travelled throughout the Adventurers Guild ever present gossip road, first into the Empire, and then to the Kingdom.

There weren't many news of this kind shared with the general populace of the Theocracy as adventurers didn't go there – no work – and the government covered the whole thing for the time being.

And was through this gossip mill that a certain rising star duo within the E-Rantel Guild heard about things very familiar to them, especially so the one clothed in pitch black full-body plate.

* * *

"Familiars! Kill everything within that forest!" A beautiful girl in rags ordered, almost desperately. The shadowy immediately snapped out of sight, following her orders. Her Vampire Brides and the newly-created Lesser Vampires followed soon after.

She had been tasked by her beautiful master to collect [Martial Arts] users, and more importantly, to not let knowledge of Nazarick's or its inhabitants existence while doing so. But one rat escaped because she got too cocky and consumed by her [Blood Frenzy]. What should she do? He even knew her name because she hadn't thought it would matter any way, and now there were more people that saw her, Adventurers who were about the cave she had just attacked.

She didn't think much about them until she saw that one of the women within the group was carrying a [Potion of Minor Healing] of YGGDRASIL origin, the kind that there were supposedly only in Nazarick. Were this group of adventurers part of her Lord's plan, and she just ruined it with her careless actions? She didn't kill the woman for the time being, but left her under the charming effect of her [Mystic Eyes] skill.

There were more from the team this woman was part of in the forest, and if they were to interact with the escaped rat, her existence could be exposed.

Things could not have possibly gone any worse.

Then, as she was worrying about such things, she felt the connection with her nightly creatures sever – something had killed all of them, including her Vampire Brides, which should have been impossible for any normal run-of-the-mill meatbag that lived on this world.

"Agh! I have to do everything myself!" She shouted anxiously, before turning to the charmed adventurer. "You! Stay there and don't move!" she ordered her in a hurry before leaping off into where she had felt her familiars were vanquished.

Even though she could not move as fast through the forest, she could already smell that the ones that had killed her minions were all human, so no matter if they were mounted or not, she could still shorten the distance before they could get away.

When she got close enough, she could perceive there were ten people in the party that defeated the servants.

In contrast with pretty much all the normal humans she had seen in this world, their gear was not of simplistic design, but highly decorated and she thought that their gear might be enchanted, but she couldn't be sure as it wasn't her expertise. Nothing compared to anything even remotely worthy of Nazarick and the Supreme Beings, but certainly more powerful than anything else she had encountered until then.

Worry started to seep into Shalltear's mind. She had absolutely no idea where these people were from or their abilities, as she only knew that they were strong enough to withstand and overcome an attack of fairly strong creatures according to this world without suffering any notable injury.

If she were to compare these people, normal fleshbags were mice while they were lions. Or more appropriately, normal humans were amoebas and these ten were mosquitoes, compared with the greatness of Nazarick and the Supreme Beings.

Inspecting the ten men and women that were part of the group, her eyes rested on one of them in particular, a male by the looks of it, although Shalltear wasn't completely sure as his features were quite androgynous and she only pegged him as a male for his armour.

Looking at him better, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was stronger than what she had originally thought. Her gut feeling told her that he was actually stronger than all of the Pleiades, which was concerning. Very concerning.

He also had better senses than the rest of the lot, as he quickly knew that there was something more besides the cannon fodder they had just slew.

He pointedly looked at the part of the forest Shalltear was currently, although he appeared to be unsure where specifically as his eyes scanned the same region again and again.

"Formation!" The almost-confirmed male – because even his voice was androgynous – ordered the other nine, and they formed in such a way that there was no blind spot.

Tch. Whatever, Shalltear had to beat them to prey information out of them, even if she had to go all out from the get go.

In a moment, she changed into her battle suit, complete with her divine-class item, ready to get serious for the first time outside of Nazarick.

As she approached, she was identified as a vampire immediately, and attacked with spells and arrows on the spot. None that could have even the littlest chance of inflicting damage.

This confirmed the truth her gut feeling said, the rest weren't anything to bat an eye about.

Her strikes with her Spuit Lance only cemented that truth even further. In a single thrust, any protection was rendered useless. Shields either gave out from the stress, or the arms behind them broke and became useless.

A strike on the plexus killed instantly one of the casters. Even one of their front-liners fell in a single hit to his helmet.

They rained upon her all kinds of spells and even [Martial Arts], but the only ones she felt had even slight chances to injury her were from the apparent leader.

"Gah! If only we had lady Kaire with us!" one of them had yowled after he was hit by her weapon.

It was hard for her to maintain her seriousness in the fight as however skilled they were, it was still pathetic to her. But she forced herself to not let her guard down; she had just let someone escape and she wouldn't commit the same mistake twice.

They never stood a chance against her. She never gave them one.

The androgynous one was the last to fall, body filled with injuries and utterly exhausted. He could barely lift his head from the ground while he spoke.

"Y-you… wicked m-monster. Y-ou might have… cough! Defeated us… but in the end! Humanity will prevail!" He continued to cough plenty of mouthfuls of blood afterwards, but his eyes never left her form, still defiantly looking at her.

Shalltear scoffed at him, as if the barking of a beaten dog could do anything to her. She still left him live, as Ainz-sama said, capture anyone who might have any useful information. And these people had plenty of juicy intel ready to be squished out of, she just needed to keep them from escaping until they could be transported to Nazarick.

She called another set of shadowy familiars and ordered them to finish the job. No one would leave that forest alive or free, she would make sure of it.

Holding her hand to the side of her face, she contacted Albedo through [Message], but her eyes were trained on the beaten forms of the warriors.

No one will escape. And if someone does, she hopes Ainz-sama would forgive her mistake.

The anti-scrying spell instantly reacted when she got to pass the information to the Overseer.

Damn it! She had been observed all the while!

* * *

"We have lost half the Black Scripture." Informed Raymond to the other Cardinals. His tone had been calmer than one might have expected when relaying such news, so his peers had to take a moment until what he had said finally dawned on them.

"What?" Complete astonishment, incredulity. Not even a shout.

"The Thousand Mile Astrologer had been overseeing the Captain and the rest of his team, when they were assaulted by a group of shadowy monsters and low-level vampires. They defeated the creatures easily, but not long after another vampire attacked them." Raymond breathed out all air he had in his lungs as he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the rest could see the seriousness and terror in them, a combination really strange to see in the ex-member of the Black Scripture.

"This vampire wiped the floor with them. She was not even trying, by what the eleventh seat told me."

Restlessness. A monster of such magnitude… could it possibly be? Is this vampire the legendary Landfall, coming after humanity once more, after she was defeated by the Thirteen Heroes? Or was she one of the Evil Deities?

"What is even more concerning…" continued the Cardinal of Earth. "…is that just after this vampire defeated the Captain and the rest, the Astrologer reported that her vision was blocked not dissimilarly to what had happened with the Sunlight Scripture. She could have been the one responsible for their disappearance."

"What are we waiting for, then!? Send in a rescue party immediately, we cannot lose the God-kin!"

"And E-Rantel is still in perfect condition, even if there is an absurdly strong monster roaming just at its doors? Are we certain that the city has not fallen to the vampire?"

"I don't know if I should feel relief that we pulled out lady Kaire from the mission, or regret that we did. Maybe if she was there, then we could have overcome such a freakish being."

"I wonder… if this vampire is more subject of concern than this new Celestial Kingdom. I don't think that such a nation has vampires – at least not willingly – within its population. If this monster is the one guilty for the disappearance of the Sunlight Scripture, and Nigun had on his hands the power to summon Dominion Authority… wouldn't she more dangerous?"

"No, remember that Gazef was very vocal about his gratitude towards this Ainz Ooal Gown for saving him and the village, and that this person was male and more importantly, an outrageously strong magic caster, not someone on red plate armour and brandishing an unproportionately enormous lance."

"Yes, we had concluded that if an unknown magic caster of such ability existed, they'll likely come from the Celestial Kingdom, didn't we? From what the Clearwater Scripture had reported, they certainly have people of such ability."

"I am unsure about it. We haven't heard of anyone with his description again, but he could as well have disguised himself. It's hard to tell."

"So, are the Celestial Kingdom, Ainz Ooal Gown, and the Vampire related in any way?"

Uncertainty.

* * *

"Jir… I have gotten more information about the new southeners." The Court Wizard of the Empire said. "I know not much about their politics, but I heard some interesting tales about their magic prowess." His eyes shone so brightly that Jircniv swore he would become blind by looking at them.

"What happened with your interest with that magic caster, Old Man? What was his name? Gown?" The Emperor questioned Fluder while resting his head on his knuckles. He already knew in which direction this conversation was going.

"Ohohoh, indeed that character is very intriguing; but I have very little information about him, where he is from or his abilities. All I know is that he had been seen close to E-Rantel and that he may be from somewhere in the Great Forest of Tob or the Azerlisia Mountains, which is a pretty wide scope to look for a magic caster that surely knows how to hide himself. In contrast, the Hero King's Capital is a city, and from reports, there are already roads made from the Celestial Kingdom to the Draconic Kingdom. Cities don't move, and most importantly, don't hide." Fluder said with gleeful tone, similar to the one he used when anything magical was in the conversation, but this time turned up to eleven. All the while, he stroked his long beard and a few joyful chuckles escaped him.

Jircniv knew it was already a lost cause.

"Haah… very well, Old Man. You may go." He started, but quickly made to add conditions before he old wizard could trail away in a hurry to his next magical learning trip. "However! I need information about them, and given your position, you will be perfect for a dignitary. You don't need to do much, no trade deals or any other delicate matters, just basic pleasantries. Also, don't forget to go with some of your pupils; they might as well learn something there." Because if he went alone and found something interesting, Fluder might not come back until Jircniv stepped out of the throne if no one was there to remind the old wizard he had to return sometime. The Emperor grew up in his guidance, after all, so he knows the legendary magic caster's quirks very well.

Fluder didn't look back at him as he started walking off, but he still waved with his hand to let Jircniv that he heard. "Yes, yes, Your Majesty. I will make sure of it."

The Bloody Emperor frowned slightly at Fluder's reaction, having expected a small if tiresome discussion with the old wizard about how giving him such a task would consume too much of his time and interfere with his search for anything related to magic.

Yet the old man didn't. Was it really something that intriguing, that Fluder would accept his first orders without even trying to negotiate?

"Your Majesty? Something the matter?"

Apparently he had spaced out for way too much time. He moved his hand at Baziwood to wave away the concern. "No, it's nothing important."

* * *

On the purest room known to the world, a woman rested on an ornate sofa, the sight of her mesmerizing for any who rested their eyes on her form. There were very few words that could describe her, but breathtaking or gorgeous were good approximations. Her facial features were perfectly symmetrical and defined; her crystal-blue eyes were complimented with the undulant cascade of her golden hair. Her body sported curves in all the right places, neither too little nor too much, everything in perfect balance.

Clothed in fine clothes of the most pristine white with golden embroidery, made from a fabric so soft it was unequivocally unearthly in origin. Her hands donned rings on each finger, each a golden piece of masterwork art with gleaming sapphires and other blue-coloured precious gems further embellishing said jewellery. Her arms were partly covered by an assortment of bracelets of differing thickness, but all were similarly decorated as the rings on her hands, as were her legs and ankles.

The white walls adorned with silver carvings reflected the faint light that entered the room through half-covered windows and that came from the chandeliers enchanted with [Continuous Light], further enhancing her already ethereal beauty.

She was Sera, the Goddess of the Realm, the Creator of the Celestial City and its inhabitants. To many, a mother figure in a spiritual level. Even to her heavenly servants.

"I wish our Lady would take into consideration how we feel before doing anything rash again." Absentmindedly said Drifa, the Protector of the Realm, as she furtively observed the person in question from the entrance of the room. "I don't understand why would she step into the mortal plane so casually, I don't understand what she looks for. Are we, her creations, not enough? Putting herself in danger like that… if something were to happen to her!"

"I think you are worrying too much, Drifa." A smooth, baritone voice said from her back. "Remember that back in the Divine Worlds of Yggdrasil, our Lady would regularly set foot outside to make sure her creations were safe, battling the Outer Gods, Dragons, and other monstrosities alike." It was Daith who spoke, not looking directly at the Valkyrie as his current task was to survey the Celestial Kingdom's lands in the New World with the use of the [Mirror of Remote Viewing]. "I mean, you should remember. You were there with her most of the time, as was I."

"Was our Lady always like that?" a third voice asked, the newest addition of the heavenly Creations of the Goddess. Valkea was in many ways like an infant, just learning the ways of the world even though she was created with knowledge imparted by their mother. She also endeared Drifa with her 'lesser class' of Dominion in comparison with Drifa's Seraphim – or simply Seraph – making the silver-haired angel wanting to help the white-haired one to advance into higher classifications, although Drifa herself didn't really remember how she did so back then. Sometime between fighting endless Outer Gods and Dragons, without her noticing, she had advanced all the way to the top, to a place just short of her own mother's.

"Yes, you could say so. Our Lady's every creation was made out of her words, so it is understandable that she gives great importance to written texts. If you are speaking whether our Lady had always journeyed beyond her Creation, then the answer is also yes."

Said Goddess was currently too focused on what she was doing to pay them any attention. Ever since she had 'struck a deal', so to speak, with the Empire's Court Wizard, she had dedicated most of her time to read each and every one of the books Fluder had, especially historical records, but also magical research.

While the research was mostly too much underneath her, as the great majority of it was about spells from up to the Fourth Tier when coming with successful variations or brand new spells – something she didn't see much point of, as her common sense dictated that spells of the Eighth Tier were basically misdirection that weren't all that useful otherwise – but the procedure of how the researchers – generally Fluder – obtained such spells was an useful insight.

Historical records, however, interested Sera more for other reasons. The best fantasy has an inkling of reality dropped into it, as in many times reality was stranger than fiction. So, what better fountain of inspiration than the very history of a fantastical world?

Getting thorough knowledge about successes that happened up to six hundred years ago, together with inconsistencies that came from such a long period of time – whether from biased historians, to misunderstandings and the loss of knowledge from a devastation – filled her in with the  _character_  of the world.

She might once have thought that it felt slightly generic, this world, but now that she read more about historic events, the picture started to form. Sort of. There were many unknowns for this world, from its population of different races, to a strange change in paradigm it appeared to have happened when the 'Six Great Gods' descended and jumpstarted humanity, which until then was more or less a dying race.

Were then the 'Six Gods' the first players? Or were they completely unrelated to YGGDRASIL? What then about the Eight Greed Kings, the Evil Deities, or the Thirteen Heroes?

Of all of them, the ones who stank more of YGGDRASIL players were the Eight Greed Kings, in Sera's opinion. Specifically a group of players dedicated to griefing, like so many that had plagued the game since day one.

If they found themselves in a situation like Sera, where everyone else seemed to be so spectacularly underwhelming, like the megalomaniacs the lot of those kinds of players were, she could see them pulling a stupid stunt like that. The fact that their old base was called after YGGDRASIL was also a great telling.

What was intriguing was that, from what she could gather from the books, the reign of these Greed Kings was actually very beneficial to humanity, like the Six Gods were before, but for some reason they were hated instead.

It could be in part for them killing the last 'God' in the Earth, the Theocracy's Surshanna, while on their conquest. There is very little of how day-to-day life was under the rule of the Eight Greed Kings, and so the only things known about them were their quick ascension to power and that their decline was brought by themselves.

It truly entered into the definition of that kind of player in Sera's mind.

Finishing a book, storing it away in the inventory while withdrawing another to read, and repeat. She also withdrew blank tomes from the black void to imprint in their pages what amounted to fanfiction on what could have happened hundreds of years back, especially about the great enigmas not touched by the annals, but in most cases, she didn't even notice that she did so, until searching her inventory again and encountering newly written books.

The more she thought about it, her arrival together with Almha could stir the new worlders the wrong way if she was careless.

The actions of her citizens could be paralleled with some of the Eight Greed Kings, for instance. By virtue of setting, the Celestial City favoured humanoid races, and she even almost completely razed various beastmen tribes into oblivion, like how the Greed Kings hunted down many demi-human and heteromorphic races.

It was also something that had been slowly eating at her subconscious, how she just reduced most of them to ash so easily. Even if her reasoning told her that leaving them alive would be bad for her own children – to which her subconscious agreed – so dealing with the threat was the most obvious choice – to which her subconscious disagreed with her actions.

Was that the so called moral-compass so many people talked about? Or was that only the karma system from the game playing with her mind?

Between reading one book and another, Sera thought for a way to balance both her urge to extend a hand in help for the remaining beastman and her writer that demanded to let things happen, as it would be more natural.

She frowned. Did that sound like something a person with god-complex would say? Hmm. Interesting.

Getting up from her comfortable sofa, she made way towards the other three. They stood at attention, even after she had said to treat her more familiarly, and respectfully saluted.

"My Lady, if I may ask, where are you going?" As it was, Drifa was very worried that Sera might decide to leave without warning like before, and she didn't understand Daith's nonchalant attitude towards this.

"I'm going to further test my magical abilities." She replied while withdrawing from her inventory [Herald's Reverence]. "You three are welcome to come with me, but I'm not going to do much beyond staying close to the Treasury trying to see how different magic acts compared with how it did back on YGGDRASIL."

For example, she automatically assumed that with her Magic Archer job-class, its penalties stayed the same in the New World, though without UI to compare when casting a spell with or without the spellbow she couldn't be sure if it really was the case.

Adding up that she hadn't used any mana-taxing spell yet, it was even more difficult to measure the mana drain. With those three [Dominion Authority] angels she had summoned via normal methods, she had felt that a little part of  _something_ was consumed, but it replenished before the battle was over. She supposed it was her own mana, and the 'feeling' of it replaced the solid numbers one could see on the UI.

She also wanted to test Fluder's method of learning and creating new spells, which was frankly very esoteric. Most of his research was in thinking about magic very differently from what was in the game, for obvious reasons, and getting her head around it might take her a while.

There was also the thing with summoning/creating angelic beings with the use of conventional summoning spells. She might have not been a dedicated summoner, so many classes of summons weren't available for her from the game, but what if she could learn to summon, say, a Gatekeeper? And why stop at angelic beings only? She knew she could do things outside of the scope of what was permitted in the game, so why not try to learn how to summon other types of beings as well?

There was still the thing that she didn't feel she gained any experience points by killing thousands upon thousands of beastmen, but the New World worked very differently in many aspects compared with YGGDRASIL.

For example, what if killing things didn't give one experience by itself, but what it did was using a skill or a weapon repeatedly? She knew of a game in his childhood that didn't have 'levels', but characters could get better at things after doing those things over a long period of time.

Given that she had killed only using her spellbow – and summons, if one counted them – which was a skill she had 'maxed out', then it would make sense that she hadn't learned anything new, because she hadn't tried anything new.

Did that mean that she had no longer weapon-restrictions?

She reached the 'testing fields' without even noticing, having documented all her wild thoughts in a particularly thick record she had been using ever since she got transported to the New World.

Putting the book in her inventory again, she considered where to start.

If it was true that to earn a 'level up' she had to learn new things, then repeating things she already knew might not be the most efficient way. Earning warrior classes for other weapons, she would need to learn from zero and it might also not be very efficient at the moment.

She wasn't a dedicated summoner, nor a dedicated sword-warrior, but she could do both. Maybe trying to start from there might be the best choice.

She turned towards the two angels that had followed her – the Overlord had stayed back surveying the realm – and narrowed her eyes at the other Seraphim. She had to try something first.

"Drifa, pass me your weapon for a moment." She requested, wondering  _ifs_. In the game she wouldn't be able to even equip the spear, and she wanted to really find out if she could now.

The Valkyrie withdrew from her own inventory the golden spear, enchanted with high-levelled Divine magic, bathing its immediate surroundings with a holy yellowish-white light, reminiscent of the sword the Hero King carried, albeit with the blade slightly shorter in the 'spear'. Really, because [Solljus] was actually more of a swordstaff than a spear, but such weapon class didn't exist on YGGDRASIL and it was a straight double-edge blade on a stick, so it counted as a spear.

Sera got hold of the weapon, and was half-surprised she could. Its weight was pretty much nothing on her hands, even though she knew it weighted quite a lot if it went by YGGDRASIL weighting system. She inspected it carefully, moving it around tentatively.

She got into a position to make a thrust. Nothing happened.

She tried to follow through the attack, but suddenly the weapon jumped from her hold violently, slamming itself on the ground blade-first.

Sera looked at her hands in bewilderment, opening and closing them as she tried to make sense of what had happened. "It looks like I'm still limited by my classes…" but the question was, would it happen with any weapon, no matter what, or was it because [Solljus] came from YGGDRASIL as well, so it had its own limitations?

She pondered further into such possibilities. Would a weapon smithed in the New World have the same restrictions? She couldn't test such theory in that moment. Furthermore, would the people indigenous to this world be affected by the same limitations? Could they use [Martial Arts] while handling a weapon from the game?

Drifa grabbed her weapon from where it landed, unsheathing its blade from the ground, and presented it to Sera again. But the Goddess waved her hand in the negative, as she doubted the result would be any different.

Leaving the matter of weapons for later, she focused her mind on magic for the moment, specifically summoning and her racial classes that let her do it.

On one hand, she might be able to 'level up' her ability on the art if she spammed it nonstop. In the other hand, it might be that trying to summon less in quantity but of higher level angels would do the trick.

Whether using the racial skill to summon instead of magic would affect the outcome was unknown. Using the racial skill let her summon higher-tier angels – even a Seraph Empyrean, even if she had to pay levels too – but with her magic she could only go as high as to summon Dominion Authority.

Would summoning mercenary NPCs with gold count as to the hypothetical 'summoning skill'? She was still unsure whether the mercs would even listen to her, or if she could influence them the same she could as with Valkea. She had plenty of summoning scrolls collected, not that she had used many.

It could also be that no matter what she did, her abilities would be stuck as they were.

But there was only a single way of finding out.

First, she was going to try if she could recreate what she did with Valkea. Who knows, it might have been a one-time thing that might not work again.

Pulling from the void a character sheet she had crafted over the last few days, left it on the floor, and used her racial skill.

From where the book was resting, a new figure emerged the same as had happened last time. A male Dominion angel, handsome face if unhealthily pale skin, with a mane of pitch black hair that reached the small of his back, and eyes that seemed to be the gate to the abyss, rose from where her spell was cast.

Like last time, he was also lacking in clothes, but she was also prepared and threw over him a white toga to wear for the time being.

He also appeared to be noticeably less confused than what Valkea had been when 'created', and much calmer besides. He only had to blink twice before he knelt and swore absolute loyalty to Sera, his tenor voice perfectly serene, indicating sincere acceptance to his place under her authority.

She had tried to further customize his appearance and build with him that what she tried with Valkea, and apparently it had at least partially worked, as he sported magnificent wings the colour of the darkest night, something that didn't come from the default angel-classes and was more like some demon-classes had back in the game.

"Tell me, child. Do you know the name I bestowed upon you?" This was going to become standard testing at this rate.

He raised his head slightly, as to being able to barely see her face. "Yes, my Lady. I am Dyster, a lowly Dominion created by your magnanimous self."

"And are you aware of your own capabilities?"

"Yes, My Lady. I was meant to know and control the powers of the arcane."

"And do you?"

He blinked again. Lifting his left hand, he let his palm upwards, and a moment later, a small flame sprung from it.

Sera smiled widely. There was more testing to do, but results so far seemed… interesting, to say the least.

* * *

The sounds of footsteps and of a solid object regularly striking the floor were heard throughout the room. The room, or more like an enormous hall that would any monarch twist in envy at the sight of it, was exquisitely decorated at every nook one could possibly see, no place was left unornamented, but on good taste. Rows of pillars from which ornate flags hung, each carrying a different crest, supported a ceiling so high that one could not possibly see it.

Elegant chandeliers floated high, illuminating the surroundings with the magical light that came from their [Continuous Light] enchantment, while below, a royal red carpet of superb quality covered the walkway that went from the enormous double-doors that opened to this room to the majestic throne cut from a single crystal in the other side of the room.

"Ainz-sama, it's good to have you back with us in Nazarick." A handsome man donning an impeccable red british suit and tie, with nicely combed hair and glasses said to the Lord of the place.

The skeletal being stopped on his tracks, moving his head to the side to address the demon who had just spoken. "Hm… It's good to be back at home." He replied, before moving his entire body to face the Arch-Devil. "Tell me, Demiurge. What is that I've been notified about, what did Shalltear find during her mission?"

Demiurge smiled knowingly, but replied nonetheless. "While on her search for worthy Martial Arts users, Shalltear encountered yet another group coming from the Slane Theocracy, like you did previously, My Lord." Truly, the genius of the Supreme Being had predicted when the Theocracy would make a move to find out what had happened with their Sunlight Scripture, and not only that, but where would they likely send them through, and gave Sebas and Solution a route that matched where Shalltear would find these humans.

He wasn't completely sure Ainz-sama knew that the Theocracy would send their strongest unit to investigate, but knowing the extreme insight the Overlord exhibited the few times he had allowed the Arch-Devil to witness, Demiurge was confident that Ainz-sama at the very least had suspicions of such a thing.

"Really? And what are they called, were they part of the Sunlight Scripture, or other similar group?"

"They are what is called the 'Black Scripture', from what we could gather from their softest members, they are an elite group within the Theocracy, even stronger than the Sunlight Scripture you had encountered yourself, Ainz-sama. And they are a very secretive fellows, their existence is known to very few individuals in the Theocracy, even less outside of it… and they have knowledge of very interesting state secrets from their country. Sadly, they have a tougher shell than anyone we had encountered until now, but they'll cave in sooner or later. As we speak, they are under the tender care of Neuronist."

The Overlord did not move for a second, before nodding in indication that he had received the report fully. Demiurge was worried for a second that he had failed somehow, that he may had missed some important detail, but apparently his work was considered acceptable. He would strive to be even better, to meet the expectations of the Supreme Being.

"Also, Shalltear is waiting for you. She said she had to report something directly to you, my Lord."

Ainz moved his head minutely to the side, in a motion Demiurge couldn't decipher. "Very well, Demiurge. Let her know that I will be waiting for her report in my office."

The Arch-Devil humbly bowed at the Overlord and left to continue with his tasks.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Ainz-sama. I've failed you! Punish me however you see fit!"

To be perfectly honest, Ainz hadn't expected that when Shalltear would enter his office for that report, she would say such thing to start the conversation.

He was at a complete loss on what was happening. Didn't she perform extraordinarily well in her mission? Why was she saying that she failed, and requested punishment for it?

Moving one hand to appease the vampire, Ainz then started talking sedately. "Calm down, Shalltear. Start from the beginning. Tell me, what is the reason why I should punish you?"

That seemed to work, if even slightly. At least Shalltear was no longer prostrating at the entrance of his office. Not that she got to her feet completely, but at least it was something.

The Vampire visibly gulped, but she had a resigned look on her face. "I… I let a human know my name, and what's more! I let him escape! I failed your order to not let people know about us, and ruined your plans!" she said with a pitiful expression.

Ainz considered what she said for a moment, humming. "Was this human part of the Scripture you captured?" because if he was, then it could potentially be a problem.

His question seemed to cause her to forcefully – if not painfully – smile. "No, Ainz-sama, he was not. He was one of my original targets, a vagrant bandit nobody that thought himself strong. I grew too cocky and let my [Blood Frenzy] take control of me, and that was why he escaped…"

"Then I don't see much of a problem with that." Interrupted Ainz, and at Shalltear's expression, he continued. "Listen, Shalltear. If it was a single man that escaped you, then it is of no concern. What is more important is that when you faced the Scripture you didn't commit the same mistake; that means you learned from it. I see it as a win, actually, as the warnings of a single survivor – especially if it's from the scum of society – won't be heeded, and instead catalogued as the ranting of a madman." He said confidently.

And in his thoughts, Ainz considered that her mission had gone actually better than what he had feared, so he needed to give her credit for that.

Shalltear's mood appeared to be lifted by his words, but not overly so. She still was biting her lower lip, in an obvious sign of worry about something else. "But you also have other things in your mind. Tell me, what else happened during the mission?"

The True Vampire exhaled deeply before answering. "…Yes, Ainz-sama, there are two major things. While the rat escaped me, I crossed paths with a group of adventurers, and one of them had on her possession an YGGDRASIL potion… and from what I gathered from her after charming her, you gave it to her, my Lord, so excuse me if I interfered with a parallel plan of yours! I didn't know that those adventurers would attack the same group I did!"

Ainz tried to recall of such a thing ever happening, and took him an embarrassingly long time to remember that he indeed thoughtlessly gave off a potion to a woman after a small bar fight he was in when he started his adventuring career. Which in turn it leaded to the whole fiasco with Hamsuke and later with Nfirea and the Cemetery – and Demiurge and Albedo had insisted that the whole thing was somehow planned by him beforehand. And what was worse was that the rest of the denizens of Nazarick actually believed them.

"No, do not worry about it, Shalltear. That woman had already served the purpose I meant for her…" Because he really didn't want to open that can of worms. If they believed something that happened by sheer luck was premeditated, well, he'll let them believe that. But he won't let them stress over things that did not currently exist.

Shalltear's stiffness diminished even more, but it didn't completely go away. Ainz massaged his temple, wondering what minor thing the strongest Guardian was worrying herself over.

"I…I'm glad to hear it. I don't know what I would do if I accidentally ruined one of your plans, Ainz-sama." She said, but her eyes still looked nervous, and gulped while fiddling with her hands.

"As I said, do not worry about it; plans can always be adapted to the circumstances." Because he does things mostly on the spot, really.

He continued to look at her, expectantly waiting for her to spill the beans.

"I-I… screwed up during my fight with the Theocracy's lot. I didn't prepare adequately." Ainz was confused at that – hadn't she won without much of a problem? What was she fretting over?

"When I was to report to Albedo, the counter-spell I casted before I used [Message] automatically reacted… I was watched the whole time, I think."

Now that… was something to worry about. Of course, the same had happened during his fight against the Sunlight Scripture, so it isn't much of a surprise that the same had happened with Shalltear. The problem was, at least with him they didn't know how he looked like, but if what Shalltear feared was true, then they had a pretty good description of her and her abilities. If the people of the Theocracy were anything like the players of YGGDRASIL, then they would start preparing a strategy for the next time they encountered her. He hummed.

"Well, that is indeed a point for concern. But the most important part is that you learned from your mistakes. First with the one who escaped you, and now with the surveillance magic. They don't know your name, or your affiliation. Now you know that you should be ever vigilant about scrying spells, which is a good thing in my eyes. We getting found out is something inevitable, and while you were seen, they still know nothing about the real powers of Nazarick. We may need to be more careful from now on, especially in lands closer to the Theocracy, but I see your mission as an overall success. So lift your head, Shalltear, and be proud of your accomplishments, and not drag yourself down for your mistakes. Instead, do your all to not commit them again, in the name of Ainz Ooal Gown."

He tried to form a somewhat uplifting speech a good boss would say to an employee, and though he wasn't completely confident about it, but he thought it passed the point across.

Shalltear bowed once again. "Thank you for your words and your mercy, Ainz-sama!"

The Overlord nodded magnanimously, and made a motion for the True Vampire to dismiss her from his office.

He still had that thing that stank of player intervention beyond the Draconic Kingdom to worry about. Maybe also from the Theocracy, depending of what could be squeezed from the members of the Black Scripture.

He wondered if his plans to ascension to fame – which are mostly Demiurge's – weren't a bit too hurried. There is plenty he doesn't fully know, after all.

And he needed to reach Adamantine Rank first for the 'demon invasion' plan to begin. He hoped that the amount of crappy 'legendary' monsters he had killed over the week would be enough for him to rank up, because the highest adventurer rank might actually interest him enough to not feel underwhelmed. He was already growing tired of completing everything by blindly swinging swords like if they were clubs, and what's worse, of enemies dying from one hit from  _that_.

There were also other interesting stories he had heard about overhearing gossip in the Guild Hall, apparently the Empire's Court Wizard was so powerful that it was said that he could rival armies of thousands by himself, although Ainz couldn't really measure this Paradyne's strength from only that. There was also the talk about two outrageously strong adventurers appearing on the Empire's capital, in a tale that was eerily similar with his own as Momon.

Other players, or were they the same from beyond the Draconic Kingdom? If they were players at all.

There was too much to worry about, especially when it came to the security of Nazarick and the creations of his friends. He started to feel a stomach-ache again, even if he didn't have a stomach anymore.

* * *

"I suspect that you have already felt the magical spike, Tsaindoruks." A figure stepped out of the shadow.

An eye opened.

"Yes… much like the times before, extremely powerful individuals have come to this world. Albeit in this case, they are not grouped all together." An imposing voice said, before letting out a breath so strong that lowered the hood of the newcomer. "These players… they stain this world, bringing chaos with them.  _He_  was a special case though, but I can't see anyone like him appearing ever again."

A moment of silence

"So, have you encountered them already?" The woman, a very old person, asked her long-time comrade while inspecting the room. "I don't see the good old Tin Can here."

"No, I haven't, Rigrit. I send the armour to where I felt enormous pressure of magic, but so far I have not encountered with any. There are the ones beyond the border lake, but the journey there for that form is long and it might take me a while."

Rigrit nodded seriously.

The dragon inspected her more closely.

"Oh? That ring is gone, what happened? I can't imagine anyone being able to take it from you…"

* * *

"Princess, Blue Rose has arrived."

The Golden Princess put on her mask for her guests. Even if she really thought of Lakyus as a good friend, she knew that the Roses weren't ready – if ever – to see her true face.

"It's okay Climb. Let them in." She said with her gentle voice.

Shortly after the doors opened, and the Adamantine Adventurer group entered the room. Lakyus, like the noblewoman she originally was, was the most polite of them, but Renner didn't find their attitude insulting. It was refreshing, actually, after being surrounded by backstabbers with dishonest faces all day.

"It's good to see you, your Highness." The leader of Blue Rose said with a respectful tone.

Renner minutely waved her hand at her words. "Please, Lakyus, we are all friends here." It was sort of a ritual after so many times it had happened already. It honestly made her chuckle, it never got old in her opinion. Like a tug of war, both their gazes battled for dominance until Renner came up victorious, again.

Lakyus sighed while nodding in defeat. Again.

"Tell me, is there any news from that thing I asked you to look into?" Renner softly asked the five, referring to something all of them could understand but the maids in charge of bringing them tea couldn't. Renner was very aware of the moles within the Royal Castle, not only the servants that attended her, but every. Single. One.

She didn't want to alert her enemies of her movements, after all, what would be better for her reputation than being the one responsible for the destruction of the shadiest of organizations within the Kingdom? Just thinking about how Climb would look at her made her want to squeal in delight.

"Yes, Tia and Tina the responsible for the last one. Bringing down such a monster takes time, and the twins are good at waiting until it's time to act." Subterfuge and sabotage. Lakyus passed her a written report, and Renner's kind smile became just a millimetre more pronounced. She passed the paper to Evileye, who automatically destroyed it, leaving no evidence.

"Very good. I know that I'm asking too much from you, even if I don't have the money to pay you and I can only offer my friendship in exchange."

"Nonsense, Princess! We'd do that either way, it's good to count with your talents at finding the sources." Gagaran spoke up, uncaring of what she said or how she said it, like always.

Renner nodded enthusiastically. "Un! Thank you for your help, I highly appreciate it. And I bet the populace does so too."

"Speaking of the populace, Princess, what is the Kingdom going to do about the little problem with the Empire? Every time I go to the countryside, less and less young people are in the fields. You know it is a disaster waiting to happen." Said Lakyus while holding her tea cup and waiting for it to cool a little.

"Yea, it's a shame. There's less and less good lads these days." Interjected Gagaran, which caused Evileye to say something under her breath that only the frontliner of the group could hear, and both of them got into a small verbal fight… again. The rest of the occupants of the room turned their bickering off.

This time, Renner nodded sadly. She let her own cup down in the low table, crossing her hands over her lap. "I know the situation is far from ideal, but there is very little I can do besides to propose some changes to Father. Even so, there are many nobles that would oppose anything I propose to do about it. In their eyes, the yearly wars always end in a white peace, so they don't see why we should worry about it.

If I were to propose to have a standing army, the Great Nobles will enter into a panic and the risk of rebellion would be high. They'll probably think that the Royal Family would want to take over their territories." She said, halfway through she turned her head to look through the window at the clear blue sky. "Sorry, Lakyus, I know that you became an adventurer to escape all things politic."

The Rose in question waved her hand. "Don't worry about it, Princess. Even if I dislike it, that doesn't mean I should be completely in the dark of what's happening, that would come to bite me later in the least opportune moment." She paused for a moment. "Which reminds me, I heard an interesting rumour when checking on the Guild Hall on the way here. I suppose you are aware?"

Renner turned her head back to Lakyus, a slightly questioning expression on her face. "I am aware of many things, Lakyus. You'll need to be more accurate. Is it the rising star of E-Rantel? Or maybe the wizard the Warrior Captain can't stop mentioning?"

"No, even if they could prove to be useful, I'm talking about what happened in the east. You know that the Draconic Kingdom has been under attack for years now, right?"

The Princess placed one of her palms on her cheek. "Ah, those news. Yes, I'm aware of it. Apparently another nation dealt with the beastmen problem, and now the Draconic Kingdom is a vassal of said country. I don't think I have learned how it is called yet."

Lakyus put her empty cup on the low table, and kept herself on a sitting position slightly forwards, holding herself with her left forearm over her legs. "Yes, that one. I haven't heard of their name yet, either, but what I've heard is that they apparently have legendary creatures as mounts, Griffins." At the mention of the beasts, Renner noted that Evileye tensed, although she was the only to notice as the rest wasn't paying attention to their magic caster. "I don't think I've heard about these creatures beyond old tales from the times of the Evil Deities or even older. I thought they had all perished or were breed to make hippogriffs until none was left."

Renner blinked and hummed, seemingly thinking about the new nation – although she had already made plans concerning them. "I wonder if I could make Father enter in a treatise with them. They sound that they are powerful enough to stand up to the Empire. If we were to form a mutual defence pact to serve as a deterrent against the Empire, then we would dedicate all our efforts on more internal matters." She politely covered her mouth, acting as if she was thinking about it. "Sorry, I was mumbling. To go back to topic, what do you think of the next hunt?"

Lakyus half-smiled, her expression having a small tinge of regret. "Sadly, I don't think we are enough to complete that task efficiently and on time. We'll need more hands than what we currently have. And that is counting with the help of the Warrior Captain, too."

Renner's face turned pensive. "What about asking your uncle, see if his group is willing to help us?"

The leader of Blue Rose shook her head on the negative. "I don't think the rest of Red Drop would be willing in such a task. And I don't know everyone in that group, so I can't be sure that there is no one that would leak information to the outside."

"Should we look into hiring some adventurer or worker group? We could also ask the supporters for help, he'll probably agree to send some of his own men."

"Hm, I don't think workers would be a good idea, as most of them are involved in some way or another in some shady business. Adventurers are more of an unknown, as the majority of them only care about money, and their silence can be broken given enough gold…" Lakyus said, running the options through her head. "…and I don't think it's a good idea to show all our cards yet."

"What about Darkness? Do you know them?" Renner asked, although she already had plans for those two.

"Those from E-Rantel? No, I have only heard about them, and that they apparently frustrated the plans of Zuranon by stopping an undead crisis by themselves. Pretty impressive, to be honest."

"Oh, yea. I got interested on 'em too, if what they say their front-liner is actually very strong. I wonder if this Dark Hero might be interested on some fun, but if what the rumours say is true, then he may not. The magic caster is apparently a pretty face, this 'Beautiful Princess'" Gagaran joined in the conversation, snorting at the end, while Evileye scoffed at the epithet of the latter.

"But they are only two people, I don't think they would be of much help anyways. I say that we take our chances with what we have now, even if we could use more people helping us. At least we know that we can trust those already in."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And enough of that for now.
> 
> It ended up being noticeably shorter than the previous part, it seems that I overestimated a bit how much I needed to write. Eh, things happen. Leave your thoughts on the comments! Some people need money to keep writing, I just need feedback (at least for now).
> 
> Sort of a sad news, even though I have a couple thousand words written already for next arc (one of the reasons this part was cut short), don't expect the next update to be as speedy as this one, as I have to study for exams for the next few weeks.
> 
> Until then, folks!


End file.
